Huh? Where? Whuh?

I've been trying out as many grocery stores as I can to figure out which one will make grocery shopping less sucky.  So far none have done the trick. 

I went to one yesterday and felt like I needed an orientation session on how to shop there.  I'd heard about it and seen their ads, but had no idea how TINY a place it was going to be.  Before even walking in I had to figure out how to get the grocery cart.  A nice older gentleman let me have his quarter and showed me how you put the coin in the slot to release the cart.  You get your coin back when you leave, unless you want to "pay it forward" for the next customer.  This was not a place you shop when doing a big grocery run.  And the brands were all foreign to me. 

So I get up to the checkout lines and notice people have their own bags or they take some from this shelf thing and PAY for them along with their groceries.  When it's my turn, I bought my two paper bags and checked out.  The cashier puts all your groceries back in your cart, not in the bags you bought, and you go over to a counter to get out of the way and sack your own groceries.  Then you take your cart back outside and attach it to another one to get your quarter back.

All of this is fine.  I'm certainly not above depositing a quarter, providing my own bags, and bagging my own groceries.  It was just that feeling of being the new person-who-doesn't-know-anything.

I've also noticed that about every time I'm out somewhere, I'll see someone and for a split second think "hey, that looks like..."   But then I remember it can't be them, because I'm not in Midland anymore.  I'm not home here, but it'll come someday. 

One day while at Super Target and talking to Addison on the phone, I really did see someone I knew.  I practically hung up on Addison, in fact I think I yelled "I gotta go!" and went to talk to the only other person besides Alan in Tulsa I know - our realtor.

But as awkward as I feel sometimes - being new at the gym, at the stores, getting the trash and recycling days down, asking the neighborhood kids to stop using our yard as a giant sidewalk, etc., I still like learning a new place.  And yesterday I discovered another Super Target that's closer to our house and BRAND NEW.  Like you walk in and it's almost silent, because the rest of the world doesn't know it's open yet.  I will be learning that place a lot.  :-)