October 27, 2008
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Sandra Tsing Loh falls head over heels for a new grocery store.
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with The Loh Life. Today's topic: Fresh and Easy and Anxious. Part Two: True Love.
I think of my mom friend Spike, who found herself on her way to some mandatory seminar on multi-tasking while BlackBerrying for the arts education nonprofit she heads and dragging along two children. "Governor of Alaska," Spike noted, "
that would be easy!"
Yes, being a semi-working semi-fulltime mom is not easy. I myself am able to do it because apparently I have over-developed beta blockers. My performance standards are eccentrically low.
My old women's writers group could never decide where to meet. My childless female compadres angsted that
their houses were not in suitable shape to host. Getting a headache from all the nattering, I said, "Let's just have it at my house." The women arrived, jaws dropped. In horror, they rolled up their sleeves and started cleaning. Good news for me.
The other day a kitten snapped my G-string. I like to say that, "kitten snapped my G-string, "because I am the sort of mom who believes in leaving stringed instruments scattered around the house, because you'll play the violin more often. Unfortunately, so will your house pets. So you'll lose an occasional string or bridge, and perhaps an occasional cat. Never mind! Life is short.
Of course my daughters' bizarre new project of Q-tipping out the cats' earwax, and leaving the Q-tips on my nightstand – although I can't tell you how relieved I was to finally learn what those were –
that I nixed.
In short, it seems almost anticlimactic to note that when my husband is away, my children basically subsist on a diet of McNuggets.
But, no more. Thanks to Fresh and Easy.
My Fresh and Easy Grocery Store is actually helping me be a better person. It's not just conveniently located in the armpit of Van Nuys. It's
so on my way, that local, organically grown fresh fruit and vegetables practically hurl themselves – as on a suicide mission – into my filthy Volvo.
I don't generally approve of hummus, and yet suddenly I'm buying my children carrots
and hummus – because of the glowing lighting – and they are eating it.
Along with adorable little soups Fresh and Easy home cooks for us, because Fresh and Easy cares. And is it expensive? No! Toothsome Whole Foodsalia at Ralphs, even Costco prices! Which makes me worry for them – are they
too good? I love my new neighborhood girlfriend so much I feel Fresh and Easy and Anxious.
Because of their commitment to underserved neighborhoods, Fresh and Easy has opened a new grocery store not just in Van Nuys, but in Compton! Not only is it popular, but – and I quote – "Over half our top-selling products in the Compton store are fresh fruits and vegetables, several of them organic."
Fresh and Easy: improving the diets of fast food-surrounded inner-city poor children! As well as, embarrassingly enough, mine.
