Peapod

You know my life is brimming with excitement when I decide to devote a blog post to grocery shopping,
but I wanted to share a little story about the hells of grocery shopping without a car, while living no where near an actual grocery store.

One poignant memory from this summer sticks out: After having trudged up and down the red line metro to the nearest Giant, I emerged out of the underground tunnel toting several heavy bags. It had started sprinkling rain when I left the store, which I thought nothing of, but as I stepped out of the metro entrance I realized the skies had opened and all of the water in the Atlantic Ocean was pouring down into my neighborhood. The uphill walk to my apartment had turned into a rapid river, and people were huddled underneath bus stops and building overhangs. Annoyed and tired from lugging the bags I decided that instead of waiting it out, I would just walk the three blocks home (Note: I can be stubborn from time to time). As you may have expected I ended up drenched, my beige dress completely soaked and see-through. I looked as though someone had just pushed me into a pool fully clothed,  and my groceries were soaking wet- the cardboard cylinder containing my oatmeal had turned to mush. After that I rarely went to grocery stores, and ended up wasting money on eating out a lot more than I should have.

So you will understand my delight at discovering Peapod! It's a service run by Giant (the local grocery store) where you can shop online and have your food delivered directly to your door. It's strange scanning through page after page of pictures of food, and I firmly believe the ease of it all caused me to order way more than I needed. It was magnificent however, to select my delivery time from a timetable as I checked-out and have my food show up a day later, with no problems and no monsoons to travel through.

In a city where not everyone has a car, and grocery stores seem to be few and far between, it's a delight to know that with a click of a button (or 30) my grocery list can appear at my front door.

A little story about Hurricane Sandy, (or stupid things you do when you're young)

In case you hadn't heard, which I highly doubt, hurricane Sandy made her way up the East Coast earlier this week. Fortunately, D.C. was not hit nearly as hard as places up north and, at least in my neighborhood, the most damage that was done were broken tree branches littering the streets.  (Other areas were not so lucky, and my thoughts are with everyone still reeling from the effects of the storm).

This meant that I had two extra days off work, inside, with netflix and my stock pile of snacks to keep me company. Although I loved the ability to sleep in, and was thankful for not losing power, the restlessness kicked in pretty quickly.

Enter, a stupid decision.

Please note: I do not condone going outside in a hurricane with 55+ mph wind gusts, especially when your city is shut down in a state of emergency BUT...

My roommate and I realized we had mulling spices, a working fireplace AND Hocus Pocus streaming online. It was, despite the hurricane raging outside, shaping up to be the perfect fall evening. The downfall however, was our lack of ample red wine with which to mull. So we had a choice to make, forgo a delicious fall drink and let Sandy win, or walk the 10 blocks to the neighborhood wine shop that was still open.

Guess which one we chose.

After putting on our best 'hurricane proof' gear we headed out. From our seats in the living room the storm didn't seem as horrible as the news was making it out to be. Sure the wind was loud at times, but for the most part it seemed manageable and my roommate, who hails from Florida, was not impressed by the category 1 label Sandy was holding.

How quickly our disillusion disappeared.

Within moments of being outside we were soaked, rain was smacking into my face so hard at times I felt like I wasn't taking in any air. We quickly broke into a jog and started scanning the streets for a cab. By the time we had realized how dumb our decision was, we were already half way there.

So we soldiered on, and eventually found ourselves inside the warm wine shop as five male workers stared at our drenched clothes and offered us paper towels. At that moment I was realizing just how ridiculous, not to mention desperate, we must look. Quickly though we realized we weren't the only ones, as at least a dozen or so other people piled into the store.

Please note: I do not condone climbing into a white van with three men you don't know BUT...

There was no way we were running home again. We had learned our lesson, so my roommate started calling cab companies while I stood outside attempting to hail one down. After about 5 minutes, and zero cabs, the kind gentleman working at the store offered to give us a ride home.

So my roommate and I hopped into the back of a white creeper van with three male strangers, and headed on our way. Despite the van, the guys were great and we were thankful for the dry transportation.

In the end, we got home safely and were able to enjoy sweet mulled red wine while watching the best Halloween movie there is.

It may not have been the smartest decision, but when you're a twenty.something the best thing you can do is live and learn.


Happy November!