Weekend Journal

The mean people at the deli counter at Shop Rite made me cry, but other than that, it was a lovely weekend.

Sunday afternoons are always a disaster at Shop Rite. I should probably go during the week, but I don't like to squander work time with dumb things like food shopping. And it's nice to have fresh lunch meat for the week. But Sunday afternoons are the worst. The aisles are packed with harried families who also can't shop during the week anymore. Their carts are piled sky high with pre-packaged chips and juice boxes. With the jump in food prices, people are avoiding the higher priced supermarkets, which is jamming things up more. Shop Rite can't find enough pimply-faced teenagers to sullenly scan my cans of soup, so the lines are long.

Last night, there were a pile of seniors there for some reason. They usually go during the week, but last night there were all hovering around the deli counter. Which is where I had my problem.

There was a crowd bottle-necked around the deli counter with a half hour wait for sliced bologna. I picked number 11 at the counter, but there were only on number 6, so I ran off to pick up a box of waffles. When I came back, they had somehow zoomed to number 13. I tried to get in there, but two snippy seniors yelled at me for walking away. I wasn't going to get into a fight over sliced bologna, so I just got the hell out of Shop Rite. The kids got peanut butter for lunch today.

Jonah has started soccer again. He's playing better than ever, and we've decided to sign him up for the year round soccer team. He needs to work on technique, but what he lacks in technical knowledge, he make up for in sheer insanity. He rushes down the field with no regard for his personal safety, and the other players give him some distance. The coach puts him in for the whole game, because he doesn't seem to get tired. He does need to work on taking shots though. Maybe I'll do that with him after school today.

When the kids first started doing their sports, Steve and I were pretty grumbly about the tyranny of the sports schedule. Our weekends were no longer our own. But I have grown to love soccer season. On crisp fall afternoons, the boys prance out on the field in their knee socks and black shorts.  They run around and bounce off each other. There's so much more action than baseball. We sit in fold out chairs in great green fields surrounded by hills and the turning leaves.   

Ian's soccer starts next week. Special needs soccer is a whole different experience. There will be kids flying in every direction. One fat kid will on sit a pile of dirt ignoring the hyper, random running and will throw specks of dirt into the air. Randomness can be very amusing.

One short economy post and then a bunch on the Times Magazine section on academia and teaching.

Comments

[bj]

my kid is having a good soccer season, too. She has neither technique, nor insanity, nor speed. But, she has persistence, and that makes me very proud of her, especially for an activity that does not come easily to her.

we get too much rain for our soccer watching to be idyllic, but I'm not minding too terribly the tyranny of the schedule. We wont' do it year around, though.

[Lisa SG]

I have probably written this here before, but you don't have to go shopping. You can have it delivered and it frequently doesn't cost anything, because they often have free delivery specials. I only go to Costco (about once per month). I never go to the regular supermarket anymore. Never! (Well, if we're entertaining, or on holidays, but otherwise never).

[learner]

Interesting post that helped keep my mind off the financial insanity going on. The ShopRite description is cringe-inducing, and I feel bad for you. Hate that sort of thing. And I also agree with not letting shopping cramp the crazed work schedule of a dual-earner family. If we ever buy deli meats it's at a pricey NYC neighborhood place for that very reason. Then we make sandwiches with home-made bread machine loaves. This works when our kid needs a lunch, which is only during summer or school vacation; mostly he eats school lunch. (Any hope of getting your kids to do that?) More generally we rely as much as we can on our CSA or farmers market produce, either making enough dinner stuff to result in leftovers or making large quantities of odd veggie-grainy-beany-salady things with that produce. Either results in lunches that are cheap, more eco-correct, healthier, and far far more delicious than anything obtainable at ShopRite. Can't something somewhat equivalent be done in the suburbs? To get out of the rut that left you in tears? I promise that I am also a very busy person who wouldn't do this if it really sucked up work time.

[laura]

Thanks, guys. Yeah, I won't do that again. I haven't gotten into e-food shopping, because I like to check out the veggies myself. Our local place also charges $12 for the service and you still have to pick it up. I'm going to have to shuffle things around here. Maybe shop for an hour on a Monday morning and then do an hour of class prep on Sunday. I wish my kids were as good eaters as yours, learner. There was a great CSA that made drop-offs in the city. I've been looking for a nearby CSA out here in the burbs, but haven't been too successful yet.