Wednesday, 23 January 2002 | Food monotony

I guess I should mention that lisawhiteman.com was selected as a finalist in the SXSW website competition. I didn't expect to be a finalist at all, but especially not in the "grrl site" category, as I'd submitted my site underneath the "weblog" umbrella. I'm certainly not complaining...just feeling a little perplexed/surprised/flattered. And happy to be going to Austin for the first time, where I will no doubt recognize people I see in my computer and have no idea what to say to them.

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Filling up my gas tank, getting groceries, roaming around my office building in order to figure out where someone's desk is—all things I hate doing. Today it was groceries, tired and hungry. If I go to one store in particular, I have the luxury of walking down the aisles like a zombie, knocking boxes of food from their neat little rows into my chaotic cart, bagging the same fruits and vegetables week after week, picking out the same variety of yogurt—strawberry, blueberry, mixed berry, 1, 2, 3—Diet Coke: check, cheese: check, where did they move the Star Crunch? I don't have to think much because little ever changes. Occasionally I'll buy a peach instead of an apple, an orange pepper in place of a red, but I'm probably not doing enough creative shopping.

Today, however, I discovered a new section; I guess I've known it was there all along, but I never really paid much attention to it. It never occurred to me that anything good could be kept in those rows of plastic tubs, the ones accompanied by little scoops that sit in labeled cradles, waiting to shovel orzo or cereal or nuts. That's right: orzo! nuts! yogurt-covered raisins! Why didn't anyone tell me about the plastic tub section before? Has it really always been there?

When I got home, I discovered that my cat Leeches, who, like me, didn't care for last night's trout, also likes yogurt-covered raisins.