Sunday, September 09, 2007

I went grocery shopping yesterday at the small market in our neighborhood. I don't usually buy the week's worth of groceries at this local market because it's a bit more expensive than the local supermarket, but that's just how things worked out. However, there were a couple of bottles of booze on my shopping list and it looked like booze was going to be significantly more expensive there, so I made a mental note to just buy the liquor the next time I was at the supermarket.

I'm much more likely to have a beer with my dinner than some fancy cocktail, but sometimes you just gotta have a martini, especially on Friday nights when we usually have guests for dinner and drinks. We also host the occasional margarita and taco night, which requires a fair amount of tequila and triple sec.

This afternoon I found myself right by the supermarket. After dropping Hank off at the airport this morning, I took Daisy to her school's annual Back to School picnic, which was held at a park next to our Safeway. It was a PTA-sponsored event, so I pitched in with some of the picnic chores, and wore a PTA name tag, and generally tried to be genial (which, of course, in my case meant making fun of children, and mocking people for their religious faith.)

At the end of the picnic, I grabbed Daisy, and headed to Safeway for some booze and two items that I had failed to get the previous day, some turkey sausage and sugar snap peas. Booze doesn't spoil, so it always makes sense to buy the big bottle. Consequently, my shopping cart consisted of one package of sausage, one small bag of sugar snap peas, a big bottle of triple sec, and an enormous bottle of gin.

The problem with this plan was that EVERYONE went from the picnic to the Safeway. I'm dragging Daisy through the booze and bread aisle (don't ask me why they go together), chatting with the fellow parents while they grab whole wheat bread and I grab the biggest bottle of gin on the shelf. At least if I had been buying vodka, that could have still been for a foo-foo drink like a cosmopolitan. Vodka comes in fruity infusions and is used in a variety of sweet beverages. Gin, on the other hand, just pretty much says, "Hi, I'm a drunk". My PTA name tag, still prominently displayed, filled in the rest of the biography.

Super. So, now I'm the big drunk parent. I'd just explained to everyone in at the picnic how I'm taking care of Daisy alone for 5 days while Hank is out of town, and 5 minutes later, there I am at Safeway buying the novelty sized bottle of gin.

The parent behind me in line at the checkout counter quietly asked Daisy what we were having for dinner and I was tired of being defensive at that point.

"GIN!" I blurted out. "We're having GIN for dinner. She loves GIN!"

"I see that," he said, somewhat taken aback.

We had home-made fried chicken and steamed broccoli for dinner. I had a beer. Daisy had ice water.

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