How not to shop

Sometimes I forget why I have the patterns and rhythyms that I have. My weekly and daily routines have developed over the past few years in a very specific way. One of these unarticulated rules was "do not have more than one activity or two stops in one day." An example would be that we might go shopping and then stop at McDonald's. If our shopping trip is more than one stop (say Costco and Trader Joe's) then McDonald's must be to-go.

And with a baby, the whole outing must not exceed 2 hours.

But ... today I was dead-set on going to church, and we really, and I mean really, needed to go shopping at both Costco and Trader Joe's. With the cost of gasoline soaring above $3.50 a gallon, the trips to Costco and TJ's really needed to be at the same time. But I forgot how tired we would all be after church, and how driving from home to church, to Costco and home again covers nearly the entire city, and how every SUV-driving, kid-toting, eco-conscious yuppie* and their neighbor would be out at both Costco and TJ's today. And I was down to one diaper in my bag. I like to live on the edge.

Arabella was loud and curious, Sabine was hungry and crying, and I forgot nearly half the things on my list. All the while playing shopping cart gridlock with previously mentioned yuppies. The line for gas at Costco was long and I figured I was sure to end up on CNN if I tried to breastfeed and pump gas at the same time, so we skipped the gas.

The worst part of this trip was getting to my two favorite booze-buying stores and re-discovering for the millionth time**, you can't buy booze on Sunday. Not even a nice chardonnay that you can take home to meet your parents. Rats. Do you think I can convince Michael that wine is an emergency staple?

*yes, I know I am a minivan-driving, kid-toting, eco-conscious mom, but I wear steel-toe boots. And I prefer to not run with the herd.

**No matter how long I live in Indiana, I will probably never adjust to the fact that you can't buy cars or liquor on Sunday.