I Really DO Live in the Boonies

As I am in Tacoma, Washington for work this week, I am reminded of the "rest of the world." You know, where there are cars driving on the streets at all times of the night, there is more than one lane of traffic going the same direction (hell, the roads are all paved!),stores stay open past 5:00 p.m., and I can actually have a pizza delivered to where I'm staying. Weeeeeeird! Hahaha. Oh yeah, and the cuisine features more than just pizza and bar food. There's like, actual restaurants where food is served without a giant side of ranch dressing. I almost don't know what to do with myself!

Here's a little story of something that happened today that really reminded me that I live in the middle of nowhere. (Be reminded that there was a time where I did live in civilization).

My coworkers and I got done about a half hour early with our conference today. We decided that we were going to go to the grocery store to pick up a couple snacks for the week, so we weren't eating crappy vending machine food (my pick: roasted red pepper hummus with Kashi wheat crackers-yum!). The first thing I got excited about was that fact that there was an Albertson's near our hotel. YAY!

We were walking through the store together and reached the back of the store. Then my one co-worker said, "Woooooowwwww, look at THAT! That is SO COOL!!! You don't see those where we live!" You wanna know what she was talking about? The seafood counter. Yup. The only seafood we have at our grocery stores comes in the frozen variety. And by STORES, I mean 2.

The next thing we all got excited about was when we reached the front of the store. It was like the clouds parted, the sun shone down, and the angels sang, "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!"

SELF CHECKOUT.

It's been almost two and a half years since I've used it, but I'll tell you what folks-it's like riding a bike. My same co-worker who was excited about the seafood counter had never used it before. I had to help her out, but overall she did well. THEN, she took a picture of it. THEN she called her husband to tell her she just used a SELF CHECKOUT lane at the grocery store.

LOL friends, I am literally giggling as I type this. It's the little things like this that remind me that I really DO live in the boonies! We still deal with frozen seafood and cranky cashiers at the grocery store. Yup, that's the way it is where we live! And please, if you see a poor soul who is struggling with a self-checkout lane (they also will probably be wearing sandals with socks and a scrunchy in their hair), please help a sister out!