The "Super-Center" Time Warp

These days I do my grocery shopping in the morning.  The days of waiting for my husband to get home in order to have the luxury of food shopping alone is rare these days.  I am DONE by the time he gets home and it is a miracle I get something semi-edible (it is debatable) on the table every night.  The thought of going BACK out, well, it makes me want to be shot.  With Cinderella in school, taking one child to the grocery store doesn't seem as daunting.  And it isn't.  One child is a cake walk.  When I think back to the days of taking a two year old and a teeny,tiny newborn shopping I shudder.  I had Sleeping Beauty in the infant carrier/car seat that didn't seem to fit right in the top of the shopping cart no matter how much I sweat, frammed (it's a word to me, rhymes with rammed) and fussed with it.  If I put her and her carrier in the big part, I'd have no room for the groceries and where would I trap put Cinderella?  Sleeping Beauty was too small to even sit up so that was out.  Going to a grocery store with two small children strikes fear in the hearts of mothers everywhere.  There simply isn't enough room for the baby, the car seat, the diaper bag, the snacks, toys and the toddler and the food - the main reason for the whole fiasco! 

Eventually I learned Cinderella was trust worthy and she held on to the end of the shopping cart.  She had to ask permission before she was allowed to let go and wander.  By wander, I mean hold on to some other part of the cart.  Some days she'd sit in the big part but after many flat sandwiches were eaten I gave up on that.  I still don't think I've yet to make it home without the bread smashed and at least one egg broken.  What is up with that?

Those days are behind me now and I barely miss them.  When I do miss those days, I remember how hot and sweaty and anxiety-ridden I felt and I am quickly over it.


Now Sleeping Beauty and I will come back home for a little bit after we drop Cinderella off at school and eat breakfast and get laundry going.  On the days we have to grocery shop, I will get my coupons together, make a list and do some quick chores around the house.  Sometimes I have to print the coupons out and then cut them.  All the while Sleeping Beauty is eating breakfast, destroying the house and generally making my life unbearable.  Inevitably there will be a mess by this time and it takes a few more minutes of my attention.  Many times I give up and deal with it later.  More times than not, I can't bring myself to deal with it most of the day.  Then we load up and off we go.


I have often joked about "Super-centers" being a great big time warp.  You go in and get a few things, walk around and look at stuff you have no business looking at, let alone buying.  Then you wait in THE line for 15 years.  Yes, the ONE LINE.  There is rarely more that one lane open.  Finally, after all that time you pay and then leave.  Ever notice how you can go in for laundry detergent and leave with everything BUT the laundry detergent?!  And yet you seem to spend over $100 a trip! 


Sleeping Beauty and I were sucked into this time warp a couple of weeks ago.  I had a lot to do that day and we had a morning like I just mentioned earlier.  I talked to the King of the Crazies on the way to the Super-center at it was after 8:30 AM.  We didn't have to buy a lot.  It wasn't a big trip.  


But...


When we left the store and I looked at my watch it was after 11!!  


We got what was on my list - nothing more - but probably a few items less as I ALWAYS, without fail, forget something.  And it is always an important something.  Remember, laundry detergent?! (Sigh.)  We looked at the clearance Halloween stuff, the new Christmas displays, the fish and then the dog toys, the kid toys and princess row, books and cute baby clothes.  I CAN'T IMAGINE WHY WE WERE GONE ALL MORNING!!


I just kept getting sucked in farther and farther.  I would think of "one more thing" I wanted to look at and then my little helper, Sleeping Beauty, would ask to see something else, on the other side of the store.  Some days I am amazed I ever get anything done!


:o)  The Super-center time warp.  Am I right, people?

Here are a couple of pictures from back in the day:

I guess it was all worth it.  :o)

Valentine's Day 2008:
Cinderella was almost three and Sleeping Beauty was four months old.