I am a total a-whole
Today I was in search of food, coffee, a place to sit and write and then groceries to prep food for the week. I was driving down the road on my way to a Starbucks to sit and do some writing, but I also needed something to eat or I would surely die, since it had only been two hours since my last meal…I was trying to decide where to eat at 40 mph, which is problematic for obvious reasons… Anyway, I got stuck in the right-hand lane and that prevented me from pulling into the Starbucks shopping center, so I turned right and thought I would do a slow pass through the Whole Foods parking lot across the street. Nothing else in the plaza really struck my fancy so I decided to try Whole Foods and see if they had something to eat and then I could go across the street for coffee. Turns out that there is this café in this particular Whole Foods and I was able to get a bite to eat, grab an iced coffee, do a little writing and then get groceries all in one spot.
More than simply convenience, what I found was something that touched my soul in a way that I didn’t expect.
I walked in and ordered a sandwich and an iced coffee, plugged into the wifi and made a little nest in the corner of the café to do some writing. As I watched people come in and out and wrote a little, I started to think about why I liked this place so much.
I have fond memories of exploring the aisles in the first Whole Foods location in New Orleans, which was basically a double shotgun house on Magazine St. I would follow my mother around while she got her assortment of new-age groceries and weird things that we couldn't get at Winn Dixie, and while she perused the aisles, I played, crawled, hid, ran around, and touched basically every item in the store. I was in total amazement of all the products, packaging, produce and random alien things that made sense to adults. This funky location has since moved into the old Bus Barn down the street, but I will always remember Whole Foods as if it were someone's house who didn't mind me touching everything and rolling around on the floor.
The Whole Foods I am in now recently opened down the street from where I currently live in California, but something about it being brand new always made me pass it by, because it couldn't be as funky as the one I remember growing up. What surprised me as I sipped my coffee was that this place kinda feels like home. Even though it is corporate and kinda uber-norcal it still took me back to Magazine St.
As I sat there I felt connected to my mother and to the funkiness of my hometown even though where I sit now is pretty whitewashed and looks like every other supermarket around...more or less. It reminded me of the grocery store as a destination, as a family mission to go and gather everything we needed and a chance to explore and see all the things on the shelves that I didn't understand...I am happy to report that my excitement and confusion about what is on the shelf remains and that I am still an a-whole after all these years.
More than simply convenience, what I found was something that touched my soul in a way that I didn’t expect.
I walked in and ordered a sandwich and an iced coffee, plugged into the wifi and made a little nest in the corner of the café to do some writing. As I watched people come in and out and wrote a little, I started to think about why I liked this place so much.
I have fond memories of exploring the aisles in the first Whole Foods location in New Orleans, which was basically a double shotgun house on Magazine St. I would follow my mother around while she got her assortment of new-age groceries and weird things that we couldn't get at Winn Dixie, and while she perused the aisles, I played, crawled, hid, ran around, and touched basically every item in the store. I was in total amazement of all the products, packaging, produce and random alien things that made sense to adults. This funky location has since moved into the old Bus Barn down the street, but I will always remember Whole Foods as if it were someone's house who didn't mind me touching everything and rolling around on the floor.
The Whole Foods I am in now recently opened down the street from where I currently live in California, but something about it being brand new always made me pass it by, because it couldn't be as funky as the one I remember growing up. What surprised me as I sipped my coffee was that this place kinda feels like home. Even though it is corporate and kinda uber-norcal it still took me back to Magazine St.
As I sat there I felt connected to my mother and to the funkiness of my hometown even though where I sit now is pretty whitewashed and looks like every other supermarket around...more or less. It reminded me of the grocery store as a destination, as a family mission to go and gather everything we needed and a chance to explore and see all the things on the shelves that I didn't understand...I am happy to report that my excitement and confusion about what is on the shelf remains and that I am still an a-whole after all these years.
Delightful!
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