THE GROCERY STORE WAS OUT OF BANANAS.
I am choosing to view this unsettling omission as a temporary result of needing the banana space for Thanksgiving-specific items. (Although the banana area is now half-full of pineapple, which is perplexing on many levels.) Who knows. Maybe no one eats bananas over Thanksgiving weekend. And I was at the store early on a Monday morning, so it’s possible the banana truck just hadn’t arrived yet? Yes, let’s go with that. I don’t even EAT bananas, but I don’t think I could handle a banana shortage. It would cause a banana panic, and no one needs that, although it is rather fun to say.
The chicken section was a little thin, too – and the breasts themselves looked kind of wan. I don’t care for a wan breast. But I bought three packages anyway; they were on sale and we’re facing down a Winter Storm Warning and we’re in the middle of a pandemic. But there were paper towels on the shelves and everything else seemed to be in stock. Well, except for cleaning sprays; that shelf was still pretty bare. I bought a bunch of canned veggies and some cereal for the food drive at my husband’s hospital, and both canned veggies and cereal were abundant. Notwithstanding the robust stores of food and supplies, I still feel a strong wave of Impending Doom which crests while I’m in the grocery store. (I seriously still cannot pass by a package of flour without gazing at it longingly. GET IT TOGETHER.)
Today’s doom is, in part, brought to you by a little trip I took to Home Depot yesterday. (The other part is the Winter Storm Warning and the neverending pandemic, obvs.) You can order curbside service at Home Depot, which I VASTLY prefer to wandering the aisles of Home Depot, hoping to glimpse a wisp of Home Depot staff member in the distance, let alone actually interact with someone who can direct you to the correct aisle. Curbside service, which I have used twice now, is prompt and masked. Yesterday, I ordered and picked up a sled for Carla. This will ensure that the foot of snow we are promised will turn out to be a measly inch of watery sludge. Anyway, I was waiting for my curbside order when I saw a family exit the Depot with their cart full of paper towels.
At first, I thought they were geniuses. Of course Home Depot sells paper goods! And if you can’t find paper towels at Target, Home Depot is a good bet. (They also have hand sanitizer and lots of cleaning supplies. Hot tip.) Or perhaps they were in the store for normal Home Depot reasons and just happened across the paper towels and marveled at their presence and bought some — beats going to Home Depot AND Target/Costco/your-paper-towel-purveyor-of-choice. But then I quickly slid from congratulatory musing to alarm, and the tableau shifted from one of Happy Family Grabs Bounty Whilst Picking Up Lightbulbs to that of Shrewd Preppers Seek Out Last Paper Goods At Unlikely Source, as when you see disaster films showing people jogging from, like, a Toys R US, with a cart full of bottled water and baby food and ammunition. Okay, maybe not Toys R Us. My panic-fantasies are dated and inaccurate.
I am always on the precipice of panic, it seems, and seeing someone else with paper towels is enough to send me scrabbling over the edge, it seems. Even though lack of paper towels is NOT THE END OF THE WORLD. Even if our supply of paper towels could use a little plumping, perhaps next time I visit the grocery store, we can certainly survive WITHOUT.
Speaking of paper goods, though of a different sort: I could use some more wrapping paper. We are down to maybe four semi-used rolls and one fresh one, which feels a little risky. I have done SO MUCH wrapping and it just now the very beginning of December. Yes, many people plan ahead like this Every Single Year, but this is new to me. And while I am pretty sure I am done with my Christmas shopping, I do keep buying justonemorething and other lovely people keep sending us gifts that also require wrapping. I don’t like to be low on wrapping paper, is what I’m trying to tell you.
I guess you can add a little Holiday Apprehension to the list of Doom Source Material. Some days it feels delicious and festive, other days — like today — it feels tiring and stressful.
Then there’s the other potential/likely source of doom: the resumption of remote learning this week. I think (I HOPE) it will be better than it was in the spring. But I am still dreading it.
This, the week after Thanksgiving, in a Period Of Doom, I am not feeling like cooking at all. AT. ALL. And yet we still must eat, I suppose. Myself, I could probably hibernate all winter on the mashed potato intake of the past week alone. But my daughter probably needs regular feeding. And all the doom and dread makes me crave pasta. One must carbo load to be able to outrun The Fearsome Something that is sending spikes of panic through one’s endocrine system.
In any event, meals must happen. So here we go, an attempt at a menu plan for the week.
Dinners for the Week of December 1-December 7
- Chicken Fajitas
- Mulligatawny Soup with Miracle No-Knead Bread
- Soy Ginger Pulled Pork with Tangy Sesame Slaw
- Chicken and Zucchini Stir Fry
- Pork Chops with Easy Asian Zucchini Noodles
- Chicken Paprikas
- Takeout and/or Gigi Hadid’s Vodka Pasta
What are you planning to eat this week, Internet? Are you still working on Thanksgiving leftovers?
life of a doctor's wife 
Ooooh I feel you. This year is the first I haven’t bought those giant rolls of wrapping paper from Costco, because OMG I HAVE SO MUCH WRAPPING PAPER and yet. I feel like, what if I use it all up? I also feel you on the remote learning thing. So far – one day in – it is better than it was in the spring. But still. Ugh. If there was a banana shortage I would lose it. I would go – wait for it – bananas. We go through like 30 bananas a week over here.
I wanted to tell you that I was inspired by your stocking stuffer post and bought a bunch of nuts and other savoury things to put in the guys’ stockings, so it’s not just chocolate!
This post, other than the excellent meal planning at the end, resonates with me SO MUCH. It is comforting to read something so similar to my own thought process when so much of what I’m hearing from family or local friends is reports of their Thanksgiving gatherings and/or travels.
Great job planning delicious meals in the face of serious challenges!
(Er, maybe I should specify that the excellent meal planning doesn’t resonate with me because as part of Life Skills training at my house, every child is in charge of planning dinner one night per week, and their planning, and meal choices, can be iffy.)
I was pretty excited to pull out my Christmas wrapping paper stash, because I remembered that I was getting pretty low and was excitedly thinking about how I’d get to Buy! New! Wrapping! Paper! and it would be a bright spark in this dreary world. But when I found it, there was plenty there- certainly not low enough to justify purchasing more. I was so disappointed. I suspect Past Me panic bought some clearance paper after Christmas last year because I was getting low and I just didn’t remember it…
You’re so organized! I never know what I’m going to eat until the meal time has passed 🙈
I too am (1) prone to panics and (2) low on wrapping paper. Here is a Coping Thought I am using to keep myself from panicking about wrapping paper; I don’t know if it’s the kind of Coping Thought that you’d find useful, but here it is in case: I tell myself that it will be Fun!! to figure out a wrapping-paper shortage. It will be Memorable/Funny!! to use any wrapping paper that isn’t overtly birthday. It might even be Whimsical/Delightful!! to use brown paper, and color on it!! La la la so breezy and carefree!!
Low grade panic is my constant companion these days. Michael’s also offers curbside pick up – I know my wrapping paper situation is dire – so I’m making a note to order some tomorrow. And, maybe that will kick my rear into gear around buying Christmas presents.
Sometimes when I run out of wrapping paper I use the comics or aluminum foil. With a pretty ribbon, that second option is probably more Christmassy.
My kids haven’t seen the inside of a classroom since March. The fall has been better than the spring academically for the ninth grader, though not great, and the social isolation is hard. College at home is going very smoothly academically speaking, although my college student has even less of a social life than his sibling, as in almost none.
BTW, I answered on my blog, but in case you don’t see, the Mushroom Wellington was good.
I feel you. It’s kind of like when I started therapy I thought I wasn’t an anxious person… until I realized my constant state was such one of heightened anxiety I wasn’t even noticing it!
My flashes of panic come while driving to school where I just go: “the world is spiking with cases and this normalcy of actions feels so WRONG!”
Also panicky here, mostly over the to-do list but also about the extenuating circumstances of the world, sure. We also had Chicken Fajitas early in the week at my house. I believe more Mexican food will surely solve our problems.