Grocery Shopping

A couple of people have asked me whether I'm getting at all bored doing the stay-at-home mom thing. The real answer being: who has time to get bored? Well, it's not the museums, appointments with the couturier, or afternoons reading Proust at Café Flor that are occupying my days. It's the seemingly endless rounds of grocery shopping! A couple of realities about shopping for food in the City of Lights.

1. Milk comes in one-liter bottles. With a couple of cereal eaters in the house, that doesn't last long.
2. Even if milk came in bigger bottles, I couldn't lug the two gallons I used to buy each week at home down the block and up to our 3rd floor apartment. True, I have one of those shopping caddies on wheels but it holds only about half the contents of your typical American-sized grocery cart. There's a home delivery option at most of the markets but I haven't braved that yet; it was enough work figuring out how to ask for a frequent shopper card.
3. You bought it, you bag it. The job of the clerk is to run the cash register. Period. Well occasionally, a clerk takes pity on me for my inability to bag and pay at the same time. If you're paying cash, exact change is appreciated. Oh yes, and don't forget to weigh your fruits and veggies before you get to the register! Put your produce on the scale, push the pictograph, and the machine spits out the price tag.
4. The shopping list says yogurt but what to buy? Seriously, the dairy aisle, even in the tiniest market, has at least 15 different varieties. Which is which?!
5. Seek and ye shall find. Okay...seek and eventually you may find. The eggs are on the shelf, not in the refrigerator case. Black beans? Forget it. Brown sugar? Maybe. Wine and pig parts? No problem.

Well, gotta go. We're out of milk again. The good news is that the corner market is open from 8:30 to 8:30 (except on Sundays, of course.)

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