Abandoned Albertsons = CREEPY

Would anyone expect an abandoned grocery store to be creepy? Evidently, the Albertson’s grocery store chain shut down. I guess I forgot about that. We walked by one of the abandoned Albertson’s last night, and there was a huge window looking into absolute desolation. It was the strangest thing, kind of what I’d imagine a grocery store movie set to look like before they put the props in. Just…fake. What would a grocery store look like with nothing in it? One of those things that you don’t think about. Half the shelves were gone, the freezer cases were empty, and the only things really left inside were dismantled checkout counters and the signs on the walls that say “Fresh Produce” and “Pharmacy.”

You know what it was? It was surreal. I stared in that window for a few minutes thinking about it until my mom broke my trance with “Julie, you look intrigued.” I answered with “It’s just so sad-looking. I mean, once upon a time a mother would take her little kids here and they would beg her for cookies in the cookie aisle, or a young husband and wife would stand in the dairy section deciding if they want skim milk or 2%. And now it’s gone!” To that, my sister bluntly responded, “Remind me never to go grocery shopping with you. You get too sentimental.” True, I am, but I’m lucky that I was born a girl because sentimentality is expected, and I can always use PMS as an excuse. Speaking of sentimentality, I have another story, but later.

Anyway, there’s nothing like a row of empty freezer cases to make you ponder your own mortality.

I probably failed to mention that I was in Orlando, FL this weekend, and I got to watch the Epcot and Magic Kingdom fireworks from a distance. I love those. Did you know it costs $1,000 to run them for one minute? They go for 20 minutes a night, 365 nights a year. I can’t do that math, but cost? Environment? They should look into a laser lights instead and only do real fireworks on Saturdays or something. They are pretty though. ^___^