Are there things you think about that you wonder if anyone else has the same thoughts? I ran into such a situation this morning at the store. After dropping my wife off at work I had to make a run to the store to pick up a book for her, and I got myself a nice shiny new Blu-ray copy of The Mist. Because Wegmans is near the local Target I decided to stop in and grab a couple of items for dinner tonight. Once again I’ll be cooking at work and listen, our food can be decent but it gets tiresome.
So I go through the usual shopping motions. Everything is normal until I get into line, and the guy in front of me is about the same age. He empties his cart and now I can’t help but look at what he has and try to figure out what he’s making. This is especially true when people aren’t buying a hodgepodge of frozen dinners. Today’s haul was nice and interesting. He had some pomegranate juice, mushrooms, a package of bean sprouts, a single onion, and some other produce. Now it is my theory that anyone buying just a single onion is doing so for a specific purpose. When you buy onions to just have on hand you buy a few, one means you need it for a dish.
I got to wondering what exactly could be made from the items he purchased. Perhaps a vegetarian dish? There was no meat, and the bean sprouts made me consider that vegan plans were in the works. But then that brings up all of the X factors when playing this mind game. I’ll often shop for a single meal, but during the course of shopping I may pick up a bonus item. Anyone behind me at these times may wonder how I’m going to augment a phad thai with a pomegranate. The truth is that I noticed they wear readily available and ready to eat. Is it the same for the gentleman this morning? Are the bean sprouts for his girlfriend?
Of course I also have to consider that he has some items for the dish at home. If I’m making pork chops, but I already have the actual chops at home, I don’t buy the meat again. Perhaps that happened with him this morning. All I know is that I put way too much energy in worrying about a stranger’s groceries than is prudent. Then again, I didn’t feel weird about this mental exercise. This gets me to thinking that maybe I’m not all that weird, and other people do the same thing.
