OMFG what was I thinking?
Ok,
So of late I’ve been on a couple of different but not diametrically opposed thought processes of late.
#1. My 1 second thingie. If I live an environmentally conscientious life, then perhaps I can help extend the life of the planet by one solitary second. Join me if you like.
#2. What are the things I must do to maintain my quality of life while saving as much money as possible.
#3. How do I support my local businesses — especially when i live in a neighborhood with so many independent markets?
Today…well today could have definitely used more planning.
So I was walking through the neightborhoodwith an empty backpack with a SXSW canvas bag inside, deciding to do some grocery shopping.
-5th & Clement - Fresh bananas & tangerines, they go into the backpack
-7th & Clement - The Smart & Final
- Upon checkout, have the startling realization of “Oh.Fuck.”
Today, walking 9 blocks to market & back, was not a good day to buy and expect to carry
1 Gallon of OJ
3 Lbs of Tangerines - purchased earlier
3 Lbs of Bananas - purchased earlier
3 Lbs of Butter
15 Lbs of Rice (A mix of brown & white)
4 Lbs of Pasta
2 Lbs of Japanese Somen Noodles
3 Lbs Sugar
2 Lbs Cheese
5 Lbs of tortillas
1 Big bottle of spaghetti sauce
1 Can of pumpkin for pumkin curry soup
1 15 Oz bottle of Worcestershre sauce
1 Hugeass bottle of coffee creamer
That’s right. Something around 50 Lbs of groceries. Granted, the grand total is less than $90 and will feed me for gawdknows how long, but I was really planning on getting some dimsum, squash and fresh veggies on the way back.
After stuffing as much as I could into the backpack & the canvas bag, two plastic bags full of groceries were humped over my shoulder that would not fit.
By the time I got out from waddling out of the parking lot, I seriously considered calling a cab to pick me and my damn groceries up for a 9 block fare. But no, that would defeat the purpose of being environmentally conscientious and frugal. I plod on and imagine my mother and her stories of hauling buckets of water 3 miles through the snow to her home. I ignore the fact that if there was snow then she shouldn’t have had to trek so far for water. It was my mom’s story of suffering. Who am I to question.
I waddled one block and then took a rest.
Maybe I could hire those teenagers to carry my bags for me.
But no, that’d be really wussy. And pathetic. Right? And totally not save me $.
Another block
Hmmm I could hop on the bus and have it take me 3 stops. WTF. I’m getting the judgement staredown from the little Chinese grandparents who know the bus systems like the back of their wrinkled hands whereas I, in sweaty desperation hauling nearly 50Lbs of groceries would wind up somewhere in Potrero hill if left to my own devices.
Two more blocks
Would it be really bad to hail down a cab? Oh wait. That’s right. SF has only like 5 cabs in the entire city. And none of them are coming through the richmond.
One more block
I sit outside of burma superstar. A little grandpa strolls past me with his groceries in a lilttle rolly cart. I envy his rolly cart and wonder how far I could get if I knocked him down with a 3 Lb box of butter, steal his cart, and ran.
5 minutes later and still catching my breath on the bench of the burma superstar, I still consider mugging the grandpa and wonder if hitting him with the somen noodles would be better.
One more block and I see a latino gentleman hauling 2 cases of coca-cola, napkins, plates, and takeout boxes (all obviously from the same smart & final that I went to) into a restaurant. He looks at me in pity. He too, has a rolly cart. Bastard.
One block further and I duck into a hardware store. While they sell cheesecloth and make keys for you and whatnot, they have no rolly carts.
Outside, I reconsider soliciting a teenager to carry my groceries again.
I start visualizing the incline of the hill towards my apartment. With the awkwardly carried 50 Lbs of grocery on my gawd.damned.poor.planning.idiotic.environmentally.fucking.committed.ass.
Tears start forming.
The incline, I know, is about 2 degrees. It might as well have been kilamanjaro to an asthmatic at that point. I was going to ahve to sit on a corner and eat all my groceries until it was light enough for me to carry the rest of the way home. Surely I could at least plow through about half the bananas and oranges before I had enough strength to move another 15 feet.
One and a half more blocks I duck into another Chinese all sorts kind of store. The kind that sells vitasoy and butcher knives and batteries and umbrellas and squash and bokchoy roots and dried pork flakes. They sell rolly carts.
And my life is saved.
The cart was $12 and I will forever after use it going up & down the street to the local market.
And damn it, I’m never fucking buying 15 Lbs of rice without my car handy ever again.
Mother of Gawd.
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