Yesterday I had to go downtown and run a few errands. It wasn’t at all a bad thing to do, but I must admit I’d been in a grump for several days and it was making even running basic errands (something I usually sort of enjoy) a much nastier chore than usual. I was still grumpy even though the sun was out for the first time in about a week. We’ve been needing every drop of rain we can get out here in California, but the downpours were starting to really get to me on top of my generally grumptastic mood.
In short, I was In No Mood To Deal With Shenanigans.
Needing a couple items at the drugstore, I popped in to hunt them down. Now the drugstore I go to carries a small section of grocery items which I usually ignore resolutely. Canned spaghetti and Spam are not things I consume on a regular basis, and if I really, really want them I can just go to the grocery store and pick them up with my other comestibles. Lately, too, the drugstore has added a small selection of fresh fruit. Again, I usually ignore it because the quality has been far from inspirational and there’s a near-lyric-quality fruit and veg stand just across the street. Why buy sad bananas and mediocre apples at the drugstore when I can cross one street and get plump, ripe plums and some Peruvian purple potatoes for dinner at the same time? What’s more, the price is pretty much equivalent, so there’s absolutely nothing to be gained for me by getting fruit in the drugstore.
Yesterday, though, as I hurried past the fresh fruit in the drugstore, I stopped in my tracks.
Pears!
I was completely overwhelmed by the scent of fresh, delicious pears. The aroma was so intense I could literally taste the pears and feel them on my tongue. I was in the midst of one of the most amazing sense memories I’ve ever experienced.
The real test, though, is to smell fruit up close and personal. Trust me, if you pick up a piece of fruit and hold it an inch or so from your nose and inhale deeply, you will be able to immediately tell whether that particular piece of fruit is worth investing in and ingesting. How? If it’s a good one, it will smell precisely the way it’s supposed to taste. If it has little scent of its own or smells odd, put it down and try another.
The pears passed the smell test with flying colors.
Grumpy? How can I be grumpy when I’ve got a bag of delicious Anjou pears finishing their ripening process on my countertop and filling my kitchen with the sweet scent of delectable fruit?
Sometimes a tiny thing can turn your entire day from crap-on-a-stick godawful to delightful. What’s more, you’ll never know where that tiny thing will spring up from. Thanks to a bin of pears in a drugstore, my world feels a lot better today. That’s a sentence I never thought I would type…but I’m certainly glad I did.
Going out to dinner,especialy when you dont know you are till its time to leave.
and of course,we cant forget cookies
Comment by jessie — March 7, 2009 @ 6:16 pm
Socks with flip flops are most comfortable. I wear them constantly. One sees a lot of this in Hawaii and Japan.
Comment by annie — March 8, 2009 @ 12:40 pm