Grocery Store Madness

Even though I HATE, hate, hate, driving in the snow, it should be a fun day at work.  We have a birthday celebration for all that months birthdays once per month.  Today is the day for February birthdays.  Not only is it birthday celebration month but it's also my bosses birthday and the celebration is being held in my office.  Yay!  

I am hoping for a snow day tomorrow and that they let us leave a little earlier than normal here as well.  It took me double the time to get to work this morning.  I only live about 15-20 minutes max from my workplace but I'm kind of in a pretty rural area away from the actual town I work in so the drive was horrid; drifting and wind and moron drivers who don't have a clue what they are doing.  I love how all the people that own a SUV think that just because they have 4WD they can race around like they are driving a sprint car and come to a full and complete stop at the drop of a dime.  Then they are pissed off and wondering why they are sitting their dumb asses in a ditch!  It amazes me every year I see it . . . and I've witnessed this for like 30+ years.

But anyway, I was going to tell you about all the crazy frantic people at the grocery stores yesterday.  So, because of the pending blizzard many Chicagoans took to the grocery stores to stock up on food and miscellaneous supplies in anticipation of being snowed into their homes.  There is no other word for what I witnessed besides it being RIDICULOUS.  Seriously!


No, this is not Candy (http://theoldladyatheart.blogspot.com/), for those who were wondering!  LOL!!

I've weathered a few hurricanes while living in Florida and with a storm of that nature, I can understand the panic of making sure you have a reserve of certain supplies.  I know with a imminent blizzard you need to "stock-up" as well but in the Chicago area, snow is not something new for us and neither is the meteorologists telling us that we should look forward to receiving a foot of snow and only get an inch.  That is how we roll in Chi-town!

So anyway, I go to the grocery store just to pick up a few things; I usually head to the grocery store on Sunday or Monday's anyhow to do my shopping or pick up some replacement items, such as milk, bread, eggs and things like that.  Well yesterday, it the isles looked like this . . .

WTF??  Seriously?  I was able to get the things I went there for but so many other things were gone!  I asked when they would restock and they said not until the end of the week.  OK, then . . .

Well, as I'm walking through he store, minding my own business, this woman (she looked like she was about my age) and I kept bumping into each other.  As I was going down the grocery isle, she was going up the isle.  However, I was as far over against the grocery shelves as possible and she was in the middle.  After the 3rd time bumping into her I started thinking she was following me. 

This really is what this woman looked like.
She had bugged out eyes and crazy fried looking short hair.

I'm pretty convinced she was.  Finally, stopping at the dairy case to grab some milk, she stopped long-wise in front of my cart.  The dairy case was right next to the end of the fresh meat case where the chicken was.  I was looking for small frier chickens to make chicken noodle soup with if we had a snow day on Wednesday but they were sold out.  So she grabs a pork roast and starts telling me how to make and what is good with pork . . . like I needed to know that! 

She then proceeded to tell me how she makes chicken noodle soup (which sounded gross and again, I didn't need to know that) and with that I said I make mine from scratch, boil the chicken down making my own stock, I make my own noodles and use fresh everything not canned crap.  She then told me she was coming to my house for soup . . . I laughed it off and walked away.  She seemed to have given up on following me around telling me stories.  So I thought . . .

I picked up the rest of my items and proceeded to the check-outs.  There were only like 3 lanes open for the hoards of people that were waiting in line . . . lovely!  That's when I heard a familiar voice say, "I'm just going to follow you out!"  OMG, it was the same woman that kept running into me!!!  Not only did she follow me into the line at the check-out but she then told me she forgot laundry detergent.  I told her that I'd watch her cart for her so she didn't have to get out of line.  Why did I do that?  I guess because I'm a nice person . . .

She fudged around for about 5 minutes before coming back with an armful of stuff.  Then she started in with her rattling again.  The checker noticed that I was annoyed and a bit freaked out by this "freak" and so she started asking me questions and gave me a signal with her eyes that seemed to say, "Oh My God!".  I mouthed "Thank You" to her and she nodded.  I paid for my items and hurried out to my car before the crazy woman could follow me there and really come over for soup!

This is a bit of an award for the woman in the grocery store.

So, that was my grocery store adventure yesterday.  I'm hoping to be snowed in tomorrow where I will do a little cleaning, a little playing Super Mario Bros. wii and MarioKart wii, maybe screw around with my jewelry and make a big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup!  YUM!

If you live in the line of this blizzard then please be careful out there and if not, well, enjoy not having it!  Until then, I'll be hoping for a snow day . . .