Anatomy of a 6am Grocery Run

Three Days Before:
I made my list. It was huge, at the time all we had in the house were a half-dozen boxes of pasta, canned soups, beans, ramen, eggs, and peanut butter. You can live off these things, but when you've been cooking full meals as long as I've been you miss making full meals with meat and veggies and salads. Not that salads are an option lately because fresh veggies go bad too quickly.

Grocery delivery is all booked up. This would have been my first choice, even if I wouldn't be able to pick my own meat. But since the Acme market down the street opens at 6am and tends to be empty at that time, I'm going Monday. I usually don't wake up so early, but I'll make myself do it.

In the meantime, I ordered some supplies from Target. We need band-aids, I'll be running low on shampoo soon, and it can't hurt to have baking soda and white vinegar for cleaning alongside the chemical-laden disinfectant sprays we've been using.


Two Days Before:
Dad had to pick up a probiotic for the cat. (Long story, gross, won't go into it) Went to the market to get meat and 1/3 of the things on my list, so I could cross them off.

But I still want to go to Acme. For one, I'm a self-indulgent teenager in a grown woman's body who just wants her treats. Two, we're almost out of bread and butter, and Dad doesn't like using the squeeze-bottle of butter I got weeks ago. I don't blame him. I probably would've been better off not giving it a try.


One Day Before:
I added potatoes to the list because ours were starting to go south. Not inedible-south, but kinda soft and I figured I could salvage two for dinner before throwing the rest away. For dinner I made chicken, frozen green beans, frozen corn, and the softening potatoes. You really miss home-cooked meals after weeks of living on takeout and pasta.

The cat doesn't like probiotic gravy powder mixed with her dry food, so I mixed a dry packet with some fresh food. If she doesn't eat it, we may have to buy canned food, and that stuff smells awful.

I set my alarm for 5:45am. I put out my clothes for the next day (complete with latex gloves and a scarf mask). I forced myself to put away my things at 9:30pm, turned on a YouTube playlist of relaxing music, and fell asleep petting the cat.


April 6th, 5:35am:
Woke up, got ready in 5 minutes, Dad and I drove to Acme. It was like a ghost town. We waited for them to open, since we got there about 10 minutes early. They didn't have every single thing on my list, but they had enough. I bought extra meat, because who knows how long it's going to be before it's safe to make casual shopping trips again.

I had planned to take pictures of the empty market, but was too focused on shopping to remember. My scarf-mask kept slipping, and the gloves were getting uncomfortable. I was getting tired, because I usually don't wake up this early to do things like shop. I got more beef and chicken because they're so versatile, I can get a few weeks of recipes out of them.

Did the self-checkout, went home, disinfected everything I could before I put it away, and fell back into bed. I slept for another 2 hours before I woke up, fixed myself a microwave sausage egg and cheese biscuit, and an iced coffee. I ate while watching the cat sleep on my DVD player.

I checked the cat's food bowl. She ate. It looks like we don't need canned food after all.

Overall, this was an interesting and fun little experience I hope I never have to repeat.

Several hours later, I realized I forgot to get beef jerky and nuts. Looks like Target's getting more of my business.