(with apologies to Frost)
One of Ward's and my running bits is our use of the phrase "everybody but you and me!" Every couple thinks sometimes that it's them against the rest of the world. But there is some evidence that he and I do seem to be on a different page than the rest of the world.
Let's start, for example, with Trader Joe's. Since they opened their first NJ store in Westfield 10 years ago we have been big fans. But the list of our favorite products from there seems to be continually edited as they discontinue one item after another. Frozen pizza with pesto and goat cheese ...gone... chocolate lava cakes... gone... phyllo beggars purses with cranberries and brie...gone.... California brown rice medley...gone. Even the organic chicken broth we loved from there was replaced by an inferior TJ's branded one.
Then there's the restaurants that we have loved and lost. (hmm, this post is becoming more about food than I anticipated...) I know that the typical restaurant has a success rate even lower than a typical marriage. But still...Yves...gone... 28...gone... Sinclaire's...gone. And that's just a few.
Last week I went to Flemington and found a number of stores gone from Liberty Village since the start of summer, including LL Bean and the Pepperidge Farm outlet store. Both were required stops for our family. Across town they are building like crazy. Lowe's and WalMart to the northwest, and to the east "The Shoppes at Flemington" with the same stores that they just put in Chester: J. Jill, Talbots, even the now-ubiquitous Bensi restaurant (which we do love).
Bridgewater Commons has decided to do a whole makeover and become, essentially "Short Hills Mall West." We'll probably stop going to both Bridgewater and Flemington. There's nothing unique left to draw us there. And who's spending all this money at stores like these in this economy anyway? It's not us -- we're looking for the bargains.
Anyway, 15 years ago today I thought that the job I was starting would be this huge important thing. Not that over-caffeinated, bespectacled blond guy in the office by the window.
So maybe I'm off-kilter with the rest of the world around me. But I'm definitely not alone. Thanks, Ward.
Bug Wars
16 years ago
3 comments:
I have loved you -- or, in the beginning, been thrilled by you -- for a wonderful fifteen years.
The world keeps changing but so do we. The secret is that we have slowly evolved, and continue to change, into our own life of what we enjoy and hold close to our hearts that doesn't hold priority with what the majority of the world considers to be important. Regardless of whether people think we're nuts because we would choose being with our children over anybody else, that we put red wine in the fridge (but not too long) to have with a big steak on a hot summer night, or that the whole family dances in the kitchen until we're laughing so hard that we can't hear the music, we do what feels good to us and what makes us happy. There will always be some one else that is richer, smarter, taller... but it's going to be hard to find people that are happier or enjoy themselves more than us.
On the contrary, we think that the world must be nuts because they don't go to these great little restaurants, don't buy the foods that can transform your house into a tapas bar with only a 350 degree oven, or go to the stores that seem to anticipate your needs. But all of this just reinforces that we must not be like everyone else and, you know what, it sure seems like they're missing out on some really good stuff. Yeah, the store stopped carrying the pizzas we like but now we're eating homemade pizzas with figs, caramelized onions and goat cheese - and there is NO comparison.
We continue to change a little more every day -- we become even closer to each other, a little freer to do what we want rather than what we think people will expect, and a little more comfortable with who we are and what makes us happy. The world can go on ahead and do what it likes. I'll be with my family having the time of my life.
AMEN!!
I loved this post. I could have written it myself. It is a running joke in our family as well (hence the "Loser Fam,ily" name. If I like a restaurant, store or food, it is the kiss of death. I even had a place go out of business leaving me with an unused gift certificate. I feel your pain, sista.
Post a Comment