Moving Gold Star – Without Navigational Assistance

23 Feb

Today I did something that I haven’t done in the last month. I went to the grocery store without using GPS or directions scribbled on a piece of paper.

WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!

I know you’re all jumping out of your seats with me. I can imagine a friend reading this on her phone in the subway and turning to the strangers around her and saying, “My friend bought food without navigational assistance today!”

Okay, I know it’s not really that exciting. It’s not like I had a baby. Or am pregnant. Or about to give birth. (It seems like all of my friends are in some state of babyhood. I’m very excited for them. Yeah babies!)

Sorry, random tangent there.

Anyways, so I made it to the grocery store today without any navigational assistance and both little boys in tow. The best part, the part that I’m really patting myself on the back for, I actually found two grocery stores.

I wanted to go to the grocery store nearest the house we’re in escrow on. You know, get a feel for it. This will probably be the store that I run to for milk and the one ingredient I don’t have for dinner for years to come. My long term goal is to get familiar with one grocery store from each chain in our immediate area so that I can shop the sales.

I’m not ambitious though. I have a horrible lingering cold and both the boys have it too. One grocery store today. That’s it. I even scoped it out on Google Maps before we left, asking it to find the grocery stores nearest to our house. After looking at Google Maps I was absolutely sure that I knew where the nearest grocery store was and that I could get there. So, off we went.

But when I got to the grocery store nearest our house it was a no-go. It’s under construction, changing from one chain to another, and my husband very recently went there and said it was a disaster. I didn’t want to go into the grocery store disaster zone with both boys. That store was definitely a bigger energy drain than I was ready for.

Immediately I had two options, either go home or find another store. Without hesitation off we drove to another store. Which we found without directions and with only one U-turn.

I didn’t even realize how cool this was until I was back at our apartment again putting away the groceries.

I left thinking I was going to one location, ended up going to a different location and not once during the whole driving experience did I feel anxious about finding my way.

When you move all you want is reassurance that one day you’ll feel comfortable in your new place. Little moving gold stars lined up on a piece of paper to show that you are making the adjustment.

Today I got a gold star.

I rock.