I’ve spent almost all of 2013 on the road, gallivanting about Florida and having an excellent time on vacation (or, truth be told, less “gallivanting,” and more “sitting in bars and drinking in a location where it is warm and the bars are open to the ocean breezes and/or actually next to the ocean”). So, today was the first time that I have been to the grocery store this year for regular food, picking up items to stock a very empty refrigerator.
One item on my list to buy was milk. I don’t drink milk; I do, however, use it regularly in baking. Baking doesn’t use a lot of milk, though, so I try to get the milk with the latest date possible. Unfortunately, the milk I like is on the top shelf of the refrigerator at the store, and the milk with the latest dates is at the back of the refrigerator. At 5’6”, this means that I become a bit of a gymnast, attempting to reach the milk at the back of the top shelf, and occasionally resorting to stopping confused (and taller) fellow shoppers to have them get the milk in the back of the refrigerator for me.
Today, I was at the store, attempting to reach the milk at the back of the refrigerator, which I could see had a due date a full week later than that at the front of the refrigerator. I was using the tried and true approach of pulling out the milk cartons at the front to get at the ones in the back (see, e.g., the movie Clerks (and yes, I realize that may not be a comparison that reflects positively on me)), when I realized that the milk I was holding had a due date after the date I am leaving.
And so, I quietly put the milk back, and took the one from the front, realizing the trip is a lot closer than I think it is.
The milk discussed in the above story, now at home in my fridge. Please ignore the milk behind it, which is embarrassingly overdue. I should throw that out. And consider consolidating the two bottles of syrup in the back of the fridge. In related news, I am a slob.
Travels with Choppy 