Thursday, January 8, 2009

A Gallon of Milk

So when you're doing the grocery shopping and you need a gallon of milk, do you look for one with the furthest expiration date?  I do.  There are only two of us and depending on whether we are on a cereal kick or not if can take a while to get through a gallon so I want to make sure I'm getting my money's worth.  Since I'm there inspecting expiration dates, I also tend to relate the date to something.  While I was teaching, I might have thought, "oh that expires only two days before Christmas Break starts." or "Ugh! the expiration of the milk is after school starts back up".  I guess it is a way for me to put in perspective that a particular date is getting close.   Am I the only one that does this?

I was at Meijer two days ago and I was looking for the best gallon of milk.  The ones on top expired about a week from then so I moved to the bottom shelf and I found one.  January 19th.  No this day doesn't mark the start of any vacations or any national holidays but it does mark something for me.  My boys were due that day.  That means that at this point I should either be holding my boys or have a stomach so big I couldn't dream of shopping for a gallon of milk.  Instead that day marks something I'll never have.  Something I'll never get to enjoy.   It was just another reminder of how different everything turned out than I had expected.  

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