Most Girls Like Shopping
Having not having dated for 7 years now, I find myself occasionally missing “the little things”. Ah yes… the little things… The colloquialism that borders on the cliche depending on the circles you run in. As I get older, I find myself contemplating the little things I’ve heard described as appreciated by my married or partnered friends. I also can’t forget the ones that are most oft expressed as missed by those others who have loved and lost. And yet, for some reason, I don’t seem to miss the aforementioned as much as anyone else. I mean sure, I miss cuddling, doing activities together, having someone to talk to about how my day went, and even the honey, where the hell are my car keys. But none of these things are really so important to me that I can’t get by without them. Cats are great cuddlers. Friends are fun to do activities with. If I really feel the need to tell someone how crappy my day was I have a cell phone and/or a blog. AND… I learned not to keep leaving my damn car keys in places that I won’t find them. So….
What brings me to this conclusion late on a monday evening? Shopping. Yep, you heard me right. Shopping. The thing that I’ve been putting off for over a week now. Now the guys reading this are going to say, “Huh? shopping sucks. Why would you miss that?” and the girls reading this are going to say, “OMGWTFBBQ! I totally get that! Shopping is awesome!” and yet, that’s not the kind of shopping I’m talking about. I’m talking about plain old everyday boring as hell shopping. Like shopping for groceries or a new couch or school supplies or any other extremely mundane and boring thing you can think of.
Upon closer examination, I think what I’m really missing is the company. I mean, come on, let’s be honest here. I hate grocery shopping. It’s a chore like anything else and with todays massively huge supermarkets that sell everything from maternity clothes to brussel sprouts to car batterys, it’s even worse. The hustle and bustle and getting bumped into and having to wait in long lines to check out really sucks. However, the one thing that always made it tolerable was having someone to accompany me. Someone I could talk to or tell me, “Don’t buy that. You dont need it. It’s a waste of money and will just end up in a cabinet/closet anyways.” I miss it enough so that I don’t even like to go shopping anymore. Seriously, at this point, I would eat tomato paste for two days if I found myself having run out of food close to Thanksgiving time just so I wouldn’t have to beat my way through a crowd with a stick. Now for those of you thinking, well, you just hate crowds, my answer is… not really. I don’t like shopping at 4am any more than I do at 4pm. (Ok maybe a little more because you don’t have to wait in line quite as long and it’s not as hot outside.) I just hate going alone. I don’t know why but I’ve always felt this way and no, taking the fat cat to petsmart is not anywhere near as satisfying.
Now all this talk about shopping makes me think of food which, inevitably makes me think of cooking. In my experience most people don’t really like to cook or the associated kitchen mess that requires cleanup afterwards. I, however, am different. I LOVE TO COOK. (Perhaps more importantly, I love to eat and the fact that I don’t weigh 200 pounds is a frikken miracle!) That being said, I’m not a huge fan of pots and pans but, I always consider it a means to an end and the end is usually worth it. Somehow, that end is not near as satisfying when you don’t anyone to share it with. Not only is portioning much harder for one person, but you usually end up with leftovers that just get thrown out and I hate being wasteful. Not to mention, you get the same amount of mess and pans cooking for one that you get for cooking for two or four and that… is so not worth it. Thank goodness for semi-healthy places in Austin like Thundercloud Subs and Veggie Heaven.