Hospitality vs. Chocolate

Mmmm... chocolate....

It’s happened again. I’ve had to confront my eccentricity.

 

I’m wondering if my peculiar psyche should have its own name, as it makes itself known more and more often these days. Let me elaborate.

 

Tomorrow my good girlfriends are coming into town for the weekend.  I’m in charge of procuring the food, as I am the local and they are coming from far-off lands where people talk about sailing their boots and call water fountains “bubblers.”

 

The grocery list is pretty simple: sandwich makings, cereal, milk, crackers, and chocolate. This is all normal stuff for me to get at the store, yet this shopping trip I had a new companion: neurosis.

 

I need someone to tell me they suffer from the same issue, please.

 

As I was shopping I realized these women were trusting me with their food needs and I wanted them to be confident in my purchases. I’m an innately picky eater, so when I go places, all food is suspicious.

 

(I almost starved to death in Tunisia because of this problem, but the fish still sporting its eyeballs and the couple eating their dinner – literally – from a goat’s skull didn’t help matters much. Thank you, Lord, for Oat ‘n Honey granola bars that I could carry in my backpack from the good ‘ol U.S. of A.!)

 

All of this emotion hit me in the condiment aisle and I decided I needed to put my visitors’ comfort level at high priority. Since they’re coming from a different region of the country our brands of foodstuffs might be different, this causing involuntary suspicion in them.

 

Suspicion on vacation is a sad thing to endure.

 

So began the adventure of analyzing every item in the cart. Instead of the Frosted Mini Spooners I would typically get for our family I splurged for the big box of Frosted Mini Wheats. Peanut butter and jelly? Had to be Jif and Welch’s. Milk – oh, that was a hard one, because what is a “national” brand of milk?! I went with Shamrock… don’t know if that was a good choice or not!

 

The final splurge item… chocolate. I got a mixed bag of snack-sized Snickers, Twix, and M&Ms.

 

Now, here’s the problem. That bag of candy is the only chocolate we have in the house. What I haven’t been missing at all in previous days is suddenly a craving as strong as anything I can imagine!

 

I want that chocolate. I want it very badly.

 

BUT… if I open the bag my dear friends will know I’ve been in the chocolate stash and I feel like it will negate all the careful planning of national brands of other foods! An opened bag of chocolate is a suspicious item – who knows if it was actually left over from Christmas?!

 

Can anyone back me up on this feeling? My husband thinks I should just tell them I’m pregnant and the baby wanted chocolate. (That’s so logical. And true. I should not take his advice.)

 

The question of the evening, then, is should I bust into the bag of chocolate or not? The secondary question is: do you splurge on the name brands when company comes?

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2 thoughts on “Hospitality vs. Chocolate

  • May 3, 2012 at 12:46 pm
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    You know what is the same everywhere…generic! 🙂

    Oh…and eat the chocolate. Suddenly I want some. We don’t have any in the house, and I’m not pregnant, so there is no reason to go buy some.

    Reply
  • May 3, 2012 at 7:10 pm
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    I say eat the chocolate! Also, we’re kind of brand name people (while being cheap at the same time), so I can’t speak to that side of things.

    Reply

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