roommate niceties.

on my way to the grocery store last night, i made the mistake of asking my roommate if she needed anything.

generally, i view this kind of thing as just one of those empty polite phrases. like when people ask you about your weekend. or make a comment about the weather. no one is actually offering to get you something from the grocery store. it's just more or less an announcement that you are leaving the apartment but will be back shortly.

one of my former roommates, gretchen, used to constantly ask if i needed anything from the store. she would call on her way home from work. she would knock on my bedroom door during the weekends and wake me up from naps. i never really understood why she would notify me that she was going to the store and it never even occurred to me that i should ask her to get something for me. looking back, i kinda wish i would have asked her at least once to get me a variety of embarassing hygiene products just to be funny.

so for the first time in my life, when i glanced at a roommate and said, "i'm going to the store, do you need anything?" i was shocked (and slightly appalled) that she said, "sure, can you get me some lowfat klondike bars."

i ended up spending about 10 minutes standing in front of the ice cream section of the grocery store trying to decide if she would rather have the reduced-sugar klondike bars or regular klondike bars. and wishing i had never opened my big fat mouth.