TheBanyanTree: Fragility

[tobie at shpilchas.net]

Oh say Julie,

	Isn’t it the little things that get you? I’ve got life crushing problems beating down my door and I try to handle it with some dignity (ho ho ho. me—dignity! yeah), but I spill a little juice on the tablecloth or drop a spoon and I’m ready to hurl the kitchen into the dining room. Not graceful at all. 

	I’ve never been like this before, and like you, this feeling of being unhinged by snags in what was reliable dishevel me. They rearrange the aisle with the cereal and at the same time they are rearranging the conduits between your hippocampus and amygdala. What a fine time is had by all. 

	From the description you gave, correct me if I’m wrong, no one else is standing by watching you lose it. That’s at least a plus. I find myself apologizing to Meyshe as he stands there, slack jawed wondering why his mom broke. 

	It’s always fun to try to figure out how to use your oppressor’s (Kroger’s) scheme against them. Why not go to the aisle where what you dearly wanted used to be and grab what is now there. Bring that up to the checkout counter and ask why the cereal looks so different. Have they switched vendors? Is it being changed because of Covid? And what are these metal parts and plastic bits doing in the cereal? It’s unhealthy. Perhaps it should be reported to the FDA? Now if you can get a dozen people to do that, you’re in business.

	Is it the Trump years? The pandemic? Your age? Because it’s winter and a new house?  The correct answer is: yes.  That and so much more. I don’t know about you but I’m getting really tired of eating this same stew. It has gone bad ages ago. But every day I get up and grab the same spoon. I believe the problem is evolving to the point that we need a shovel.

Tobie



> On Jan 25, 2022, at 10:03 AM, Theta Brentnall via TheBanyanTree <thebanyantree at lists.remsset.com> wrote:
> 
> You're going through a move, which is a whole monster level of stress in itself, and the grocery rearrangement is just the cherry on the top.  We saw a flock of people with clipboards in our grocery store just shortly before we left on this trip, and I walked up to the older person in the group and asked if this was a plot to rearrange the store yet again, and he threw his hands up and said in a panicked voice, "no, no, no! These are just new employees and they're learning the store."  Apparently I was not the only one to imply there would be repercussions if they shuffled the shelves again.
> 
> The next time you're searching for your cereal, check the regular cereal aisle, probably right between Captain Crunch and Lucky Charms.  In the last re-org the clever store designer decided that organic didn't need it's own section, so things were scattered throughout the store.  It caused so much backlash from customers and the store employees who were filling pickup orders that they finally grouped all the organic, health-food items in their own little part of each section, so all the organic cereal is together at the end of the cereal aisle instead of being flung willy-nilly throughout the whole cereal aisle.
> 
> On your next trek to the grocery store, put on your leopard print underwear and and imagine yourself as a fearless hunter, spear in hand, setting out to prowl through the grocery jungle in search of your prey.  You can even stalk down the aisles with a snarl on your face.  You'll either have fun frightening the staff, or someone will swoop in to guide you to fulfill your shopping list in record time.
> 
> Theta
> 
> On 1/23/2022 2:54 PM, Teague, Julie Anna via TheBanyanTree wrote:
>>> Maybe it’s living through the trump years. Maybe it’s the pandemic. Maybe it’s my age. Probably it’s winter and the stress of having just moved to a new house. I’ve always felt very resilient of mind and body, dealing with life’s ups and downs. A left hook here and a roundhouse there, but always landing on my feet. And now, despite being in a pretty safe position in many ways, I feel more fragile. I was in a bit of a funk anyway, today—see any or all of the above reasons—and then the kitchen sink backed up, which is never a good thing. I went to Kroger to buy drain-o and food which can be microwaved or eaten raw (since my stove will remain inoperable until an electrician can rewire something in another week and a half) and Kroger has seen fit to rearrange aisles all over the store. Some of them, namely the one that my cereal is on, the cereal that I’ve eaten for years now, is nowhere to be found. Why Kroger, why?? Why now? As if anyone needs a seismic shift in the one place you count on for being steady ground. As if anyone needs to stumble in from the cold after a long work day to buy a couple of things to feed the family and end up in a labyrinth of glassware and spatulas instead of the cereal aisle.
>>> 
>>> Intellectually, I know this shouldn’t be a big thing, but emotionally it made me feel like a hopeless idiot, wandering around the store with a frown on my face. I even asked a worker and he told me it just shifted two aisles over. No…no it didn’t. I looked two aisles over, and then three and four and all the way to where I know it isn’t, over by the cleaning supplies and pet food. At least the drain-o was pretty much where I expected it to be. I grabbed a bag of corn chips because I saw them on an ender and figured I may never find them again, and some coffee since half the coffee aisle was empty. I considered, briefly, buying several bags, but I refuse to give in to herd mentality, another depression hot-button for me right now.
>>> 
>>> Now I’m home, feeling like I’ve been blown off course by a missing organic cereal aisle and the rest of my day has felt weirdly sad. Maybe it isn’t the cereal. Maybe it’s just everything.
>>> 
>>> Julie
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"Be a Man."   (Man to child)


Tobie Shapiro
mailto:tobie at shpilchas.net <mailto:tobie at shpilchas.net>