I have this\u2026thing\u2026for grocery stores. I know \u2013 hawt, right?? I might even have a borderline, er, issue: \u201cHi, I\u2019m Amanda, and I\u2019m addicted to grocery shopping.\u201d \u201cHI AMANDA.\u201d I wonder if anyone else happens to frequent grocery stores numerous times throughout the week. Even when I budget, even when I meal-plan, even when I\u2019m trying to be \u201cgood\u201d \u2013 all of those delicious rows of perfectly packaged and pristinely lined up products get me all in a tizzy. So, without further adieu, my \u201clove letters\u201d to my favorite grocery destinations: —————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Dear Trader Joe\u2019s, Do you know I smuggled a bunch of holiday goodies in a backpack home from Chicago? So many, in fact, that I had to unload some weight from my suitcase so as not to pay the \u201cheavy bag\u201d fee of $100. That\u2019s how much I miss you here. Thank the Lord you are FINALLY building stores in Texas. I suppose I\u2019m going to have to start fighting the other mommies for Two Buck Chuck and olive oil popcorn \u2013 and oh yeah, that to die for frozen Tikka Masala I used to eat like, everyday. The BEST frozen section, period. Oh my mouth just waters at the thought. And the people are so friendly \u2013 and do you think you will have balloons for my 4 year old when we check out? I do so love the balloons. Please hurry. I\u2019m expecting to see some delightful chocolate truffle bunnies around Easter time. Your biggest fan, Amanda —————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Dear Whole Foods, I know people call you \u201cWhole Paycheck\u201d, and I hope that doesn\u2019t hurt your feelings. I\u2019m sure you are doing JUST FINE. Really and truly, you do be the prettiest, prettiest girl. I have never witnessed a more glorious sight than your seafood counter at opening time. The colors! The feast for the eyes!! Glory be, it makes me want to cry. My favorite spot in your store is most definitely your deli and hot bar. Oh, and the sushi! The only sushi in a grocery store I would eat \u2013 and you have those delish \u201cfruit sushi\u201d spring rolls with that sweet dipping sauce \u2013 Oh! And pie shooters. Pie shooters ROCK. Over Christmas I had a delightful bowl of vegetarian chili accompanied by some jalape\u00f1o cornbread. It warmed my soul to the deepest part of my being. I wish that we could be together forever. Sadly, I am keeping my distance from you at present \u2013 I try to keep you a secret from my hubby but he finds receipts sometimes and I think I might be cut off soon. So\u2026I will be loving you from afar for a bit. But don\u2019t think it\u2019s because I don\u2019t love you. Always, Amanda —————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Dear Central Market, I love that you are the fancier version of the tried and true HEB store. At Baylor we called the HEB near campus \u201cthe Ghetto HEB\u201d. You, my dear, are most certainly NOT Ghetto. I liken you more to a lovely flower, filled with foodie delights and the most fantastic produce section I\u2019ve ever seen. We bought our Thanksgiving bird from you last year, and may I say, it was delicious. I love how at your meat counter you have an old school numbering system. I like to feel like a \u201clady who lunches\u201d sometimes and grab a number and wait for it to be called, even though there\u2019s no on else in line. And you have really good lobster mac n\u2019 cheese. Over the holidays you had the cutest little flavored marshmallows \u2013 I actually gifted those to quite a few people \u2013 definitely didn\u2019t save any for myself. I wish you were closer to me. It makes me sad that we are so far apart. When I am off my self-imposed grocery store exile I will visit you again\u2026preferably with no crankypants toddler to shuttle around. I like to take in your beauty with only the voices in my head to accompany me. Talk to ya later, A <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have this\u2026thing\u2026for grocery stores. I know \u2013 hawt, right?? I might even have a borderline, er, issue: \u201cHi, I\u2019m Amanda, and I\u2019m addicted to grocery shopping.\u201d \u201cHI AMANDA.\u201d I wonder if anyone else happens to frequent grocery stores numerous times throughout the week. Even when I budget, even when I meal-plan, even when I\u2019m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1169,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions\/1169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}