my grandmother often says, "you will pick, and pick, and pick...until you pick SH*T!" it is usually said with regard to being too picky/basically trying a million things and still not making up one's mind, causing the option(s) left to be crappy (pun intended). my would've-been MIL says it too. must be a blactina and/or caribbean grand/mother thing.
what does this have to do with eastgate liquors, you ask? well, i found myself @ EL en route to what i think may have been a date with my ex (yup, the ex that is the son of the would've been MIL who says the "sh*t" comment like my granny). what was supposed to be a 5-minute exchange somehow turned into food, drinks and football-watching at his house and i was supposed to bring liquor - which i forgot. (yeah...i know. liquor plus ex loves = dangerous.) EL was the closest place i was aware of, so i popped in there, hoping to satisfy my curiosity about the drive-through too. (i'm really perplexed at liquor store drive-throughs. i'd never seen them before i moved to this area. it just sounds soooo wrong.) but the drive-through wasn't open. bummer.
i parked and entered the store, and this is really where the "pick sh*t" comment comes into play. as soon as i walked in the door, i was nearly knocked over with a whiff of what i can only describe as sewage. *BARF!* it really caught me off guard, and i stopped for a minute, thinking perhaps one of the two employees unloading boxes right inside the doorway must've ripped a serious fart right before i walked in. i guess not though, b/c i trotted quickly away from them and towards the back, and the offensive smell remained even though i'd moved aisles away. i couldn't take it so covered my mouth & nose with my scarf and started heading back to the door when i tripped on the UNFINISHED floor and almost landed on my face. WTF?! i guess it's not enough that the store smelled like a shit-hole, but it looked like one too. besides several of the shelves being understocked and the boxes all over the place, the peeling, cracked, half concrete and half linoleum [or some other cheap, failing material] floor was a mess.
a 3rd employee, who was behind the counter, asked if i was okay. he's probably the only reason this is a 2-star instead of 1-star review. i grumbled "yes" and "thank you" while pulling my scarf back across my nose and he gave me a sheepish expression and shrug of his shoulders i took to me something like, "i'm sorry, i know this place looks/smells like a dump." while looking at him i realized the liquor i'd been searching for was behind him/the counter sealed w/ the specialty stuff, so asked for the smallest bottle. even for a small bottle, i was surprised by the price and wonder if he gave me a little break since i almost took a spill due to the horrid condition of the establishment. whatever, it was cheap and fast, and i got out of there quickly w/o inhaling much more of the outhouse aroma.
i drove to my ex's hearing my grandma/his mother in my head and laughing, wondering if it that store stench was a sign that i shouldn't have been heading to his house at all. i wouldn't call him a sh*t, even though he did some pretty sh*tty things to me towards the end and our break-up was a total shitstorm. when i arrived he gave me a big hug, and ironically, he said, "you smell great!" (thank goodness for girly lotions & potions, LOL.) i think, after years of not speaking, we are becoming...friends? (enter comments about backsliding, ex's being ex's for a reason, and general self-delusions here.) who knows if we'd ever pick each other again. but i urge you to never, ever pick eastgate liquors. they are most definitely - SH*T. read more