Compromises and Substitutions or Better Luck Next Time

In the drudgery that is known as Florida there is hardly a decent supermarket. I have substituted my self-service aisles of big, clean, spacious Stop and Shop, for the dank, gloomy, smelly, tiny quarters of Publix Supermarket. I do however, like the people that work there. What I don't like are the prices of food, the terrible selection on everything (I have to buy my zucchini pre-packaged rather than being able to pick which ones I like) and the fact that they no longer carry Krispy Kreme donuts in my nearest supermercado.

In the drudgery that is known as Massachusetts, while we lived in a very nice town, there never was a feeling of community. Now we live in an enclosed little area and I've met a few people who are cheery and gossipy and have kids! I'm expecting a big turn out for Halloween, especially since I've had my costume in mind for awhile now. I wasn't sure if I'd see any kids but on the day of the picnic it seems as if they crawled out from every rock, tree, nook and cranny there was. There were more kids than adults. Hopefully they'll be good kids and not the punks/brats in Massachusetts.

In the drudgery that is Florida, well ok, it's a peninsula but where we live there is no sign of the ocean nearby. I miss the feeling of endlessness, of humbleness when looking out onto an eternity of water and knowing that it connects me to someone miles and miles away. Here, we are the Land o' Lakes. Lakes everywhich way you go. Small, big, medium... all full of alligators.

Speaking of Land o' lakes, I've slowly devoured the rest of my Mass. stash of goodies. One was this butter that was homemade and delicious. I didn't make it at home, someone else did and marketed it to the local supermarket and in a blind taste test it won hands down. We've looked around and I found this butter that was from Denmark and it's a pretty good substitution. Bad substitution and lousy compromise is the water. Bleh. No crisp, clean Poland Spring. Although the Fiji water isn't bad. But it's expensive. Another stash was my cat's food, the dry kind, which they only seem to like to sell in "wholesale" mode, meaning I have to buy a twenty pound bag of it as if my cat's gonna go on a seafood diet/ see-food.

I've left behind a "community bathroom" for one in my own room, which is a one up, but I've left behind two rooms to the one that we have now, which is a downer.

One thing that isn't a substitution and one I'd miss dearly is Ray's New York Bagels, which they sold at my supermarket. I cried out an "alleluia selah" when I saw those at our local one.

Well in a world of compromise, I'll take any creature comfort I can find.

Me.

P.S. I forgot to mention that we finally got a new mirror for our bathroom. In our old one, we had two so as a couple we could brush our teeth without banging elbows with one another. The only problem is that our mirror looks like that "The Ring" mirror. You know, the one where the weird woman is brushing her hair in. Well, to make matters worse I like to use the bathroom in the wee hours of the morning and my eyes are still light sensitive so I don't turn on the lights, but the mirror is directly across from the toilet, just a few inches up so you don't catch a glance of yourself on the bowl. I leave the door a teeny bit open and the other mirror reflects light into the mirror that I am staring at and it creates an eerie little glow in the mirror and as I pee last night's water, I am covered in goosebumps from my wicked imagination.

And there is your "too much information" for the day.