The Agony and the Ecstasy of HEB

For those of you who are not in Texas, HEB is the grocery store.  It's ubiquitous.  It's easy.  It's great.  We happen to have an HEB very close to our house, which has a treacherous parking lot, but also a fresh sushi bar.

This week, I returned to HEB for the first time in a month.  In the wake of what's happening in Haiti, it is mind-boggling to consider the extravagant amounts of food that we have available to us.  In the wake of bedrest for a month, it is mind-boggling to be in a fully-stocked grocery store.

First, it's huge.  And I got tired.  Granted, my belly is a lot bigger now than it was a month ago.  I also just sort of ran out of steam.  I was incredulous that the frozen food aisle was just the mid-point -- how could dairy still be so far away?  But seriously, these stores are big.

Second, it's full of stuff.  I read recently that the average grocery store has 50,000 products for sale.  I dismissed it when I read it, finding it either unfathomable or irrelevant to me, perhaps both.  Not so, this time.  I saw more of these thousands of items than I had ever seen before.  In fact, I saw them to the exclusion of the things I was looking for, as I rapidly tired in this mega mart of high-fructose corn syrup consumption.  Dazzled, I trudged on.  In fact, I waddled on.  I think I am waddling at this point.

Needless to day, I am talking about a simple trip to the grocery store and I did manage to make it out in one piece.  I also made it out, and to my car, with assistance.  With my new "restricted activity" status, I gratefully accepted the bagger's offer of "help out with that," and found that it is, quite simply, the best thing ever. 

It goes without saying that when I got home, it was naptime.

Hope this finds you well.  Here's to naps and reaching week 33!

-- Heather