We were at the grocery store tonight when my son said he had to go potty. I took him out of the shopping cart and realized I didn't know where the bathrooms were in that store. And then I realized that was odd.
I've been going to that same grocery store since 1997 when I moved near it. I'm not altogether surprised that I haven't had a personal need to go to the bathroom while shopping, but how could I not know where the bathroom was? It would be in the back somewhere, maybe in-between sections. But I had never noticed it before.
I had seen a documentary once about how complex grocery stores are--that they are the most densely-packed informational environment you brain has to deal with. The way we manage to find what we're looking for is by narrowing down from large categories to medium categories to smaller categories. For instance, you go to the canned goods aisle, look for the vegetables section, find the corn area and then look for the white shoepeg corn you came for.
The show further said that we're so focused on the thing we're looking for that we may not even see something out of place right near where we're looking. In the case of the bathroom tonight, once I started looking for it, I quickly found the very large sign on the back wall saying, "Restrooms".
As I walked over to that area I noticed it was in the middle of the chilled meats section. There was a wall of refrigerators housing bacon, sliced meats, sausage, hot dogs, etc. and right between two was a double-wide opening where the bathrooms were.
And it was a full corridor with a bench and a water fountain. How had I never noticed it was even there before? In my mind, the refrigerated meats section was a seamless wall of chilled meats. Amazing.
The Big Boy Update: He is getting really good at toileting. Tonight before bed he was watching television. He suddenly ran into the bathroom saying, "I have to go potty." He hurriedly went and ran back into the living room. Only a month ago, he would have gone in his pants he was so engrossed in the television show.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter was putting clothing magnets on a magnetic doll tonight. She had found the skirt and shirt but wasn't sure what the small thing she picked up next was. When she realized what it was she said, "oh, it's her underpants. Yay for underpants." Then she put the underpants on the doll's chest. She found three more pair and put them on her torso.
Fitness Update: My lower back and sacral area has been driving me batty lately. Last night was particularly bad as it woke me up all night long. I didn't know if I was going to make it to the trainer this morning, but once I got there we did things that didn't bother it much. Sitting here writing this blog post is giving me more fits than all the work we did this morning. Go figure.
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