"I love Whole Foods! There, I said it." by Steven

I know they're corporate, which means they're evil, but I love 'em anyway.

There's no Whole Foods on St. Thomas. We can get a lot of whole-foods-y kinds of things, fortunately, but not everything. So when friends come to visit, and they bring us things we can't get -- like mac 'n cheese, Tom's cinnamon toothpaste, and Sunspire chocolate candy -- we become overwhelmed with joy. Yes, there are tears. We're a bit disturbed by that overwhelming sense of joy, but we're joyful nonetheless.

Today, I am in Indianapolis for a conference. Indianapolis has a Whole Foods. The Whole Foods is 15 miles from the conference center.

I tried to rent a bike to do the ride, but the weather's too cold for tourists to rent bikes, apparently. Fortunately, a friend at the conference offered to drive me in her rental car. [Thanks Tamara!] When I got there -- yeah, I'm going to go through with the telling of this story -- I was SO HAPPY! Yeah, I know! You're disappointed! I don't care!

I used to hate grocery shopping until health food stores came along. At health food stores it's so easy to find good food, too easy. I don't mean healthy food, that's a bonus. I mean good food. So there I was, at Whole Foods, gleefully prancing from aisle to aisle, filling my basket with goodies, not worried how this tale would sound when I would report it later. I indulged in ginger candy, nutritional yeast, unsulphured fruit, and mac 'n cheese. I splurged on organic pasta and sugar-coated Omega 3 candies for the kids. I orgied among the rows and rows of snack bars to find Luna bars (for Luna) and Clif bars for, well, Sol. When the cashier reported my total of $100, I offered $200.

I went way off the grocery list, a behavior I'm typically reprimanded for. But I couldn't help it. I believe it's important for us to make sacrifices -- including Cool points -- for the things we really care about and that we support others who make their own sacrifices. Will you support me? Can you support me?