Fresh obsessed, I think not.

So I had gone grocery shopping last Sunday and one of the items I bought was romaine lettuce in a three-pack. I sat down to eat dinner on Monday night with my pre-made veal parmagiano and then made up a salad to go with it. Thinking that I was going to save time I tried to take the short cut and cut the lettuce first before washing it. I planned to just toss the cut lettuce in some running water through a strainer. But then I noticed a bug in my lettuce. I tried to rinse it away, but it was quite persistently sticky. So I put the lettuce right underneath the running tap. Then I noticed another bug on the same piece of rectangular lettuce, hidden beneath the rolled up corner. Ok I found at least 5 bugs on a single piece of cut lettuce, now this in my books is just a couple bugs short of infestation. I bought that particular type of produce because I thought it would be quick to prepare. It turns out that I spent more time cleaning it than I did eating it.

The Dominion didn't live up to its "Fresh Obsessed" standard in my books. So I went to return it later in the week. The bugs weren't as obvious when I brought it in. Friggin wished that I had taken pictures of the damn bugs to prove that they were actually there (an OCD type of thing I picked up from my dad)--but alas I don't have a camera (see lost camera post). Anyhow, when I went to return it, the lady at customer service gave me this attitude like she didn't believe me. I don't know what it is, but I can't come up with a stern enough rebuttal at the time. I got my refund anyway, but I can't let people walk all over me grrrr. So here is what I would have said to her:
"Yeh so there's bugs, but you're returning it 6 days later," Says ugly grocery lady. [she actually said this]
"Excuse me?...What did you say? What's with the attitude? You seemed perfectly normal when you were dealing with the last lady who wanted to take one of your shopping carts home to carry her groceries," says me a little bewildered.
"Errr, ummm, yeah but it's 6 days after you bought it."
"Yeah well you should have seen the amount of bugs on it after the first day. You're lucky. I don't know why you're giving me attitude because you're giving me the reimbursement anyway. I don't need a lecture from you. Do you know how long it took me to wash the freaking lettuce (throws lettuce onto the counter-top), 20 minutes. 20 minutes!! That only gave me 15 minutes to eat my dinner!! It took me 6 days to return it because I am busy. I go to class for 40 hours a week and when I'm not in class I'm studying, and when I'm not doing that, I'm sleeping or eating. OK? so I don't have time to come back here just to get a lousy $2.99 put back onto my debit card. It's not like you are losing money by giving me my $2.99 back. Have you actually taken a good look at these bugs? They're disgusting! Even when I had washed the lettuce, I couldn't even eat it without feeling grossed out-thinking about their red bodies and spiny legs clinging to my lettuce. Fresh obsessed? I think not. I think false advertising! And another thing, the receipt says that I can return anything within 14 days!
Have you seen the sign behind you? It says "CUSTOMER SERVICE". Not "BITCH WITH AN ATTITUDE, AND THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS WRONG." So as a customer I expect to get service. Now if I hear another comment out of you and I'm switching to The Superstore, and I'm going to tell all your customers about your little bug problem! (sigh) I'm in a hurry right now, give me my $2.99!"

If only I could have said all that...I would have been one of those crazies that people would probably stare at but it would have made me feel better.

I really was in a hurry--on my way to the Food and Wine Expo at the Metro Convention Centre. It was fun. I probably had a bit too much wine, in a place that was a bit too lit up, but it was pretty cool nonetheless. It should have been called the Wine, Alcohol, and a little food Expo because it really was just about the wine. Lots of people were getting hammered. And the people serving the wine, some were volunteers, which meant really that they could drink wine for free while working. I discovered a couple of new wines (to me) that I like, apart from the regular Zinfandel that I enjoy. Riesling and Chardonnay are quite tasty. I could tell when my face started to get red, right around the time more people started to stare at me. OH so embarassing. Damn lack of alcohol dehydrogenase. Anyhoo, it was a good time. The best food we ate came from this place called Taste of Elios: pulled pork, venison ribs and ostrich risotto. Mmm, I can't wait until we can go out again for good food and drink.

Let's see, what else did I do this week. Well I went to see Chicken Little with Karen. We walked to Rainbow Cinemas at Front St and Jarvis St. It only took us half an hour to get there, albeit in the rain. But it was fun. The movie was so cute. Chicken Little looks like my sister as a baby too! I'll have to upload a picture of her when I download the capabilities. Right sis?

My parents came to visit me for a meagre 2 hours on Saturday. I must admit that the visit was way too short. They did bring me a brand new lamp though from Ikea. One that I've desperately needed since being here. I can't understand why apartments don't have overhead lights! Anyways, I've nicknamed it The Sun because I barely ever see sun in my apartment unless it has reflected off some windows of another building into my room. At best it's only an hour or so of premium sun. The Sun also came to be because I now have a slab of tinfoil on my ceiling to help reflect the light onto my desk area, hence increasing its status of any old lamp to a magnitude of greatness!!! HAHAHAHA. However, Boon says he used to have this same lamp and said it died on him and so he's not very impressed by the lamp, nor by the tinfoil. Ever the skeptic!!!