Healing from Loss: Stalking through Wegmans

Robin Botie scrambling through the sweet potatoes at Wegmans in Ithaca, New YorkWhat am I doing, crazed and frantic, alone at home on a Saturday night? My friends are all out. Unavailable. I’m having a major breakdown and there’s no one to call. I’m miserable.

Why? I ask myself. And when answers don’t surface I move on to my three questions:

What do I need to feel better?

What is it I really need?

Which one of these will I be able to do something about right now?

At this moment, I can only get as far as the first. I’m starving. Food will make me feel better.

That’s how I end up in Wegmans.

Who dares to go to Wegmans hungry? Everyone knows this is dangerous. Unless you bring your camera and head straight for the fresh produce aisles.

Two hours and 98 photographs later it is after 9pm and I’ve stalked through most of the store. By this time Wegmans’ sub shop and Chinese buffet have closed down. The Julie Jordan salad booth is empty. Grabbing a sushi take-out, I finally check out and find my car. On the drive home, I leave the radio and the audio book off. I want to get back in touch with whatever it was that brought me to Wegmans on this Saturday night when I should be out anywhere else having fun with my friends.

But now, except for still being hungry, I feel pretty good. And all I can think about is going to Kyle Thompson’s website to see his photographs gone viral. And how I will photo-shop myself in Wegmans, drowning in the sweet potatoes.

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8 thoughts on “Healing from Loss: Stalking through Wegmans

  1. Elaine Mansfield

    Robin, I will always think of you in the produce bins at Wegmans. Glad the sushi take-out was still available. That’s saved me plenty of times. I’m in this odd place where being alone (with Willow) is the most soothing thing I can do for my hearing, my body, and my sense of well-being. Maybe I’m finally learning how to be quiet. Hope you took some of those sweet potatoes home to bake. I have a stash of winter squash from my friend’s garden. Good, easy, nutritious for someone who has food love and cooking aversion (a new character trait).

    I gave your blog address to a woman who lost a daughter to cancer this morning. I actually, I gave it to her friend who will send it to her. Hope she gets it and makes contact.

    Reply
    1. Robin Botie

      Another daughter lost to cancer. So sad. Is she local?
      I seem to buy sweet potatoes every time I go to Wegmans. I don’t cook them up as quickly as I buy them. I totally relate to loving food but not loving cooking. Unless someone else is cooking. In which case i love to wash. And do the dishes after.

      Reply
    1. Robin Botie

      Lynne, it sounds like you’ve known for a long time that there was art at Wegmans. Something tells me I’m gonna spend more Saturday nights there. Maybe some Friday nights too. ART at Wegmans. Do you think we could start a movement?
      Thanks. So good to hear from you.
      Cheers!
      Robin

      Reply

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