a trip to costco

so today . . . i went to costco after school.

i just wanted to go home and crawl into bed, but we were out of tillamook cheddar cheese and eggs. and without tillamook cheddar cheese and eggs, we die. seriously. you can eat tillamook cheddar cheese and eggs in many different ways that require little or no cooking--well, except for the eggs. of course you have to cook the eggs. but if you don't happen to have bread or english muffins or tortillas or pasta in the cupboard, it is ok--you can just scramble the eggs and put the cheese on top and voila! dinner :) so yeah, you could live on tillamook cheddar cheese and eggs . . .

and the best place to get them is at costco. the savings on those two foods alone make the trip worthwhile, but if you add in a whole bunch of bananas for $1.33, it is almost like going to the bank. well, not really, because it is a challenge to go to costco and spend less than $100, but still . . .

i live right between two costcos, but the newer one is a little further away. so the first question that always has to be settled is, which costco? today i chose the newer one, because i know where they keep the dried mangoes. i know they have dried mangoes at the other costco, but i've never actually been able to find them. and when i ask, they always seem to be out. and rollie needs dried mangoes like i need dark chocolate m&ms. we won't discuss whose addiction is healthier, but they say dark chocolate is good for you . . .

i always have to fight snack food battles when i go to costco. have you ever been in a store with so many snacking choices?!? and i am not just talking about the candy aisles. since we don't really eat candy anymore (except for you know what,) i don't even walk through that part of the store. but the bakery section just kills me! i can't even go back there!! the chocolate muffins call to me. the white chocolate macadamia nut cookies call to me. the croissants call to me. the squishy white dinner rolls call to me. it is a cacophony of evils! thankfully it is in the back corner of the store next to the automotive stuff, so i am usually able to avoid it.

and then there are the clothes . . . a trip to costco is never complete unless i walk through the clothes. i don't know why i do it. i don't think their clothing prices are exceptionally good, and they rarely carry anything in my size. but every once in a while i am rewarded . . . like the time i found these great fur lined hoodies. they were in the kid's section, but i found that the XXL fit me just fine. and there was a brown one with leopard print fur lining. so of course it had to come home with me, and now it is my favorite coat! (and it doesn't even bother me one little bit that one of my former students who is now in the third grade has the same coat. because i am sure hers is not XXL!)

i really only needed a few things today. i thought. until i started walking through the store. before i knew it, my cart was starting to fill up. of course, it doesn't take much to fill a cart, because everything comes in super enormous sizes! thankfully, costco has also supersized their carts, so you don't realize just how much stuff you have until you try to put it in the tiny little trunk of a convertible! i finally had to buy their big reusable shopping bags, because they would put my food in cardboard boxes, and then i couldn't get them into my trunk! which meant i had to take all the food out of the boxes. which meant that when i got home, getting the food from my trunk into the house took many, many trips . . .

today i used the self-checkout line for the first time. there was no waiting, so i thought i would give it a try--it had to be faster if there was no line, right? um, apparently not necessarily. the machine wouldn't recognize my costco card, so i had to have help before i even got started! and then the bananas wouldn't scan through, and i had to have help again! i'm not sure you can really call it a self-checkout line when the costco employee is standing right there watching your every move. but the machine finally totaled up my purchases, sucked funds from my bank account, and sent me on my way, reminding me to keep my receipt handy so that it could be checked on my way out . . .

i got to the exit with my two giant bags of mostly groceries, only to be stopped by the girl at the door. she took my receipt, gave it a glance and handed it back to me.

and then she said, "oooo, i like your necklace."

costco. they have it all--tillamook cheese, eggs, dried mangoes. and compliments!