One Thing I Love

One thing I love so far about CA is Trader Joe’s. It sounds funny to say that pretty much the only thing I really like so far about the West Coast is a grocery store, but so it is. I was familiar with Trader Joe’s before this. There was one in Dayton, and one opened in NYC just before I left, so I’ve had occasion to try some of its offerings in the past. But it seems different here, and cheaper. I’ve gone twice now—there’s one not far from this apartment—and feel overwhelmed whenever I go in; there's so much to choose from. It’s the perfect store for this stage, since many of the products are pretty much heat-and-eat. For people without too many cooking utensils and not even a bottle of olive oil or jar of salt, it’s ideal.

And the big news of today’s excursion to Trader Joe’s is this: I walked! Despite popular belief, it is possible to walk from the apartment to Trader Joe’s. Granted, the walk is less than scenic (i.e., along a busy highway), but there are sidewalks, and two intersections at which to cross the road, and even though it was really hot and the frozen products I bought may very well have melted on the way home, soon to poison us both, the point is that I walked somewhere. I left the car in its covered parking spot and went somewhere on foot. Splendid.