Costco Archives - Adulting: Second- Half

Berry, Berry Friday!

Happy Friday!!! Happy Best Day of the Week!!! Happy Day to play with all of your favorite stuff!! On Fridays, here at the blog, that’s all I discuss – my favorite stuff. We weren’t given five senses for nothin’. Today’s favorite involves perhaps my favorite sense: Taste. My daughter was home from college visiting us last weekend, and we went to her, and mine, and her dad’s favorite store: Costco. My daughter begged and pleaded (Okay, huge exaggeration. My daughter suggested them, and I, without hesitation, nodded enthusiastically to throw them into the cart) for us to buy a bag of Trü Frü frozen chocolate covered strawberries. Oh! Wow! Let’s just say that the enormous bag of Trü Frü did not make it to this weekend. These luscious frozen strawberries are first coated with white chocolate and then they are dipped in milk chocolate. And these juicy babies trick your brain into believing that they are healthy, because you know, they’re fruit. Supposedly, three of them are less than 100 calories. . . if you can keep it to three.

Don’t fret. You can buy Trü Frü in many different food stores besides Costco. You can even purchase all sorts of varieties of Trü Frü fruit snacks on their own website. (I know where you are headed next.)

Have a fabulous, yummy weekend!! See you tomorrow!!

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

January = Friday

Hi friends! Happy Friday!!! Happy Favorite Things Friday!! New readers, I don’t go to the “whys” of anything on Fridays. On Fridays, I keep it on the surface, and I list three favorite things, songs, products, websites, foods, etc., that make life just a little bit more fun! I strongly encourage you to list your favorite items in my Comments section and please check out previous Friday postings for more fun favorites. Here are today’s favorites:

2020 Mood of the Month Calendar:

https://mashable.com/article/2020-mood-month-meme-reese-witherspoon/?utm_campaign=mash-com-tw-main-link&utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitter&utm_content=culture

The “2020 Mood of the Month” calendar, featuring Reese Witherspoon, put a smile on my face and a chuckle in my throat. A whole bunch of celebrities got in on “the mood of the month” action, and they can be seen in the above article, and also on Twitter. I think that we all can completely relate to the expressions shown on their faces. And I don’t think that it’s acting on anyone’s part. Reality bites in 2020, in many ways. And it certainly shows on people’s faces. Actors are just particularly expressive.

Giovanni Rana Gnocci Skillet Kit – If you think that gnocci is delicious, you will think that this gnocci is ridiculously delicious. I purchased this “easy and quick to put together” kit at Costco, without even getting a sample bite first. I feel like I hit the jackpot. Everyone in my family is in agreement that this might be some of the best gnocci they have ever eaten. Bon Apetit!

Friday Night Lights – This is an older TV series (early 2000s), but if you have never seen it, you must watch it now. My husband, my daughter and I have been hooked for about a month now, watching this TV show series practically every single night. Even my eldest son, whose only been here for the week, is completely hooked with us. The show features a small Texas town, whose whole community identity comes from their high school football team. The show doesn’t sugarcoat what it is like for people’s life experiences in remote, rural towns, with limited opportunities, and Coach Eric Taylor and his wife Tami, remind you that there are good-hearted, “full of integrity and tenacity and dedication” people out there in the world, even when it sometimes seems like these types of people, are few and far between.

Remember, Fridays deserve January’s mood, even in August 2020. Happy weekend, friends!!

Whole Paycheck

They say that you should never go to the grocery store with an empty stomach. I have oft heard this wise wisdom repeated throughout my life and I absolutely believe in its truth, in totality. I actually overheard that proverb said three times over, in a grocery store, just yesterday, as I steered my “filled to the brim, with things toppling over the top of it” cart towards the cashier.

It all started when I realized that we needed more gut shots, beet flavored. Costco got us hooked on this ridiculously expensive juice which is rather awful tasting, but decidedly helpful in the digestion arena. Like many things that Costco has gotten us hooked on, over the years, just when we are at the point of “I can’t ever live without this stuff”, Costco puts up one of its asterisk warning symbols on the price sign, and then quickly discontinues the item, leaving me, the desperate shopper, fumbling, all alone, in the dark, with no direction to go. Costco can be cruel.

Now, to order the said beet shots online, Amazon would charge $25 a bottle because they have to be delivered, cold, in a refrigerated delivery truck. (the beet juice is good, but it isn’t THAT good) So, the closest place that I could find, which regularly stocks 1-3 bottles of this stuff at any given time at a price more reasonable than $25 a bottle, is a local health foods store, similar to a smaller Whole Foods. I mentioned to my husband and to my daughter that I was going to get some more beet juice, if they wanted to ride along. Much to my surprise, both decided to come. It was a beautiful, cool, crisp, fall day and I did have the convertible top down, so I was figuring they just wanted an outing and some fresh air. Nope, not really. It turns out that they were starving. So was I.

Now these types of grocery stores are not the types of stores where people typically “load up”. People typically walk around in these stores with small, eco-friendly, sparsely filled baskets. These stores don’t even have “normal sized” carts. I think that the workers and the shoppers in these types of stores secretly hold the belief that eating is really rather kind of a nasty, gauche thing that you have to do, to stay alive. They all look at each other serenely, knowingly, and with an air of superiority that seems to say, “Yes, we have to eat to stay alive. But WE will only fill our bodies with small, expensive, tasteless nuggets of nothingness to keep ourselves alive and alert for one more day. WE are in the know of the correct ratio of just enough sensible calories to sustain the CORRECT level of alertness. Wink to you, fellow smart, healthy consumer.”

Further, there are absolutely no bargains in these types of stores. There are no BOGOS as far as the eye can see. Sales are gauche in these parts, too. The “Whole Foods/Whole Paycheck” absolutely applies to Whole Foods and to every knock-off store like it. But, since the three of us didn’t bother to fill our tummies before we headed off for a couple of bottles of beet juice, instead we decided that instead of going out for dinner, we would “eat in” last night and our dinner would consist of everything that looked good to all three of us, in every single aisle of the store. By the time that we got home and laid everything out that we had bought, our counter top looked like it was helicoptered in from The Old Country Buffet, minus the chocolate fountain. (but we had at least six different desserts to make up for that loss.) We had managed to buy out the store, of everything they had on the low end of health and the high end of sugar and calories (but hey, it was natural cane sugar – no chemicals). I purposely threw the receipt right into the garbage before giving it another look. I didn’t want to get sick, as my stomach was gorged. Luckily, the beet shot which I just took this morning, has me all straightened out and back to even keel, and in good senses. There will be no more impromptu family trips to ANY type of grocery store, except for right after a large dinner.

Oh Yes!

Happy Friday!! Happy Favorite Things Friday!! What a nice little, easy, short week a lot of us have had with The Fourth being on Thursday and a lot of people taking today off, as well! Here’s to 4 day weekends!!! May they prosper and multiply!!!

New readers on Fridays, we keep it light, simple and materialistic. On Fridays, I list three favorite things, music, websites, books, etc. and I encourage you all to add your favorites to the comments section. Please check out previous Fridays, to peruse more favorites, to make your Friday even more fun.

My husband loves bees. He loves honey. He is just fascinated with bees. Therefore, I have a lot of bee motif jewelry and I have no problem with that part of his obsession. I have jumped on the bee bandwagon and I have filled our home with bee trinkets, as well. Here are some recent bee purchases that I highly recommend to anyone who is also entranced by bees.

Costco Native Bee House – This cool wooden and bamboo contraption is like a bird house for mason bees (great pollinators, but these bees do not produce honey). It looks adorable hanging on our fence and we have seen a couple of bees looking at the real estate with interest. There is even a slot for butterflies who are the flamboyant tenants that I am really hoping take up residence.

Wisteria Beehive Hose Holder – I love this hose holder so much, I would bring it inside. It is absolutely adorable, yet functional. The shape of it reminds you how they got the name for the 1960s beehive hairdo and it has little statuesque bees all over it with springy wings. Sometimes, I just go around the corner of our house, just to gaze at this adorable container.

Laguiole French Home steak knives – Not only are these steak knives divinely sharp and functional, they are beautiful works of art, with lovely handles. The bee part comes in, with the fact that the top of every knife has a bee ornament on it. I think it is the small details that can make something go from ordinary to exquisite!

Sticker Shock

I’ve been going through the fun experience of “sticker shock” as I have been opening up our credit card bills corresponding to all of our summer fun and the finishing up of our house renovations. It’s not that we didn’t consider our budget when planning all of this. We had a good general idea of the cost of all of this fun and upgrades. It’s just when looked at, as individual costs, they didn’t look so bad. All lumped together, it’s breathtaking. It’s daunting.

I get “sticker shock” at certain stores every single time I check out. Costco and Target come to mind as my biggest, “Oh Wow! Did I really just spend that much? There must be some sort of mistake.” It happens every time. My daughter and I now laugh at ourselves when we say we are just running into Target for Advil or toilet paper. Ha! My favorite experience is when I try to hone myself in and I try to get away without getting a shopping cart. I still end up hobbling up to the checkout counter with a toppling pile of awesome stuff, often running into other shoppers because I can’t see over the pile of things that I am trying to carry, to the checkout line, to buy.

Costco is another harrowing experience of sticker shock. The checker usually whispers to us, the amount of money we owe, I guess in fears of setting us over the edge. How do incredible bargains add up to incredible sums owed, so fast? The person at the front of the store, assigned to check people’s carts, who are leaving the store, never bothers to check over our cart very much. We hand the person our mile long receipt with the scary sum total owed and they just highlight it real fast with looks of fear and sympathy, as they pat our backs on the way out of the store.

Don’t worry, readers. We are fine. Our bills are paid. I am not going to be adding a tip jar to my blog. Once again, I am just trying to get a laugh at what I hope is often a universal experience. I am going to age myself, when I say that I grew up at a time when things only had sticky price tags attached to them (UPC codes, huh?), and moms walked around grocery stores with little plastic clickers to keep a check on how much their carts were adding up to, in order to avoid the panic of literal “sticker shock” when the time came to write a check. Back then, no one got angry at people writing checks at grocery stores. I wonder if there is now a retro app on my phone, equivalent to the little plastic clicker. I guess that would be called a calculator. I may have to start using the calculator a little more handedly, if the ultimate “sticker shock” starts really affecting my health adversely. In the meantime, I’ll just nervously giggle.

A Phone Call

My friend told me the other day that my blog reminds her of a morning call with a friend. I love that! So today, I am going to write my blog with a phone call dialog:

Me: Hello! Good Morning!

You (my friends): Oh wow, you called me kind of early on a Sunday morning. But hey, how goes it?

Me: My daughter and I went to Costco yesterday, but before that, we went to PetSmart and bought a couple of little fish for my pond and then we realized we couldn’t keep them in the car safely. I didn’t want to find some boiled fish when we got back to the car, so we had to walk around Costco with a bag of fish.

You: You walked around Costco with a bag of fish? What did people say?

Me: It was actually pretty funny. You would think that only dogs, or maybe carrying around a baby kitten or a bunny, would get you some attention, but we got a fair amount of comments about the fish.

You: I bet you did.

Me: Yeah, we started calling them our “emotional support fish.” Can you imagine fish with little vests on?

You: They’d be more like lifejackets.

Me: Hahahaha! I told people that the fish had separation anxiety, so we couldn’t leave them at home.

You: Speaking of pets, how are the pups?

Me: Oh, they’re great! Today is their birthday. Our dogs have the same birthday. Do you believe it? Ralphie, our lab, is two today and Josie, the collie, is one. My daughter made sure that we put “birthday bandannas” on them. They seemed pretty excited, but they’re excited every day. Dogs act like every day is their birthday. I want to be like that . . . .

You: Yeah, for sure. Are you psyched for the final episode of Game of Thrones??

Me: Is grass green? It’s going to be bittersweet though. GOT was always so much fun to look forward to and I haven’t found a series that I have liked nearly as much as I like it. I think all of the fuss about changing the ending, is more about people grieving that the show is actually over now.

You: Oh, so you like this last season? Do you think it is good?

Me: I feel kind of neutral about it. I don’t think it is the best season of GOT, but it isn’t terrible. I think with the long break, everyone’s anticipation was just on over-drive. Nothing could ever measure up to the expectations, I think.

You: So true.

Me: I have this sign in our powder room that says “happiness is a journey, not a destination”. I think everyone is just sad that the journey with GOT is over, you know? By trying to get a new ending, they are just trying to keep the journey going. Like my son is graduating from high school this week, and the graduation ceremony, and the celebrations and dinners and parties will all be fun, but the real story, the real adventure, the real meaning, was all of the years of his primary schooling. . . . all of those years of transformation from being a little boy, to becoming a capable young man. Do you know what I mean?

You: Absolutely! You know what? This conversation reminds me of your blog.

Me: Yeah, you’re right, there is something there, to write about it. It’s like we are always racing towards the finish line in everything we do. “I can’t wait for school to be over or to be done raising kids or to win some kind of award or medal”, but the finish line is sometimes a “mwah-mwah” because it is usually at that end moment, that you realize, you were actually really enjoying “the process” of whatever you were doing. You are not sure you are ready to let go of that journey just yet. It is usually at those final moments that a light bulb goes off and you think, it was never about the ending/finish line/gold medal, after all. It was really about everything that it took to get to the end. “Happiness is a journey, not a destination.”

You: Okay, you’re getting deep. I gotta go. Go write your blog.

Me: Thank you. I love you! Bye for now.

Costco and Aging

I’m about to write something kind of “cringy.” My kids say that I say “cringy” things all of the time, so I guess I’ll just stay on my roll. Today my husband and I are going to Costco and I’m giddy about it. Yes, giddy. I’m pretty sure that my husband’s excited about it, too. It’s on the list of Date Night Options and it makes the cut a lot of the time. I’m not sure why I love Costco. I’ve had a membership for a long, long time and I didn’t always feel this way about it. When I was younger, I think I considered Costco to be more of a “necessary evil.” I hate crowds and our Costco is always crowded, starting with the crazy parking lot. The samples really don’t thrill me. I don’t really like Greek yogurt and quinoa is only good to me if it is smothered in some kind of fattening sauce. The sample “nazis” stress me out anyway. I’m still a little scarred from the time when I accidentally pulled a sample from the wrong side of the little plastic roof thing. That Sample Lady angrily immediately tossed out the entire tray of samples into the garbage can right in front of the hoards of people waiting with drool coming out of their mouths. I think I got the evil eye all at once from at least 60 people that day.

So, I’m trying to figure out why my husband and I like Costco as much as we do. It might be because Costco has a little something for everyone, or should I say a lot of something for everyone. I mean who doesn’t like good books, good gadgets, good prices and mounds of food? I really don’t think that is it, though. Now please don’t quote me on this because I’m not a doctor or a scientist, but I’m almost positive that loving Costco is part of the biological aging process. I think it goes like this: Wrinkles. Readers. Grey Hairs. Achy joints. Enthusiasm for Costco.

When we go to Costco it’s like a Middle Age Reunion Club. Every time we go there we always see someone from the past. We see couples from our former Travel Soccer Club Posse. We see current work colleagues and parents we met at College Orientation in the Book Store. And we all are smiling. And we all have full carts. And we are all going to get one of those delicious, cheap hot dogs wrapped in those steamy, pillowy buns because we earnestly believe that the jumbo size One A Day vitamin bottle that we just purchased will cancel out the guilty pleasure of the hot dogs. Whatever makes me happy about Costco, whether it be a biological switch or not, one thing is for certain. Costco is on the keeper list for my Second Half of Adulting.