When I fall in love, it will be forever.

Yesterday, I fell in love.

No, this has nothing to do with my post about the great bouquet debacle. I fell in love. . . with a specialty grocery store.

Trader Joe’s recently opened in Nashville, and being who I am, I’ve been resisting. The powers that be built the store in Green Hills, a slightly self-important part of Nashvegas that also has a significant traffic problem. People kept telling me to go there, but I kept resisting, insisting that a grocery store was a grocery store.

Guys, I was wrong. I love food. I love cooking food, baking new things, and coming up with my own recipes. I’ve even been known to sit down and read a cookbook from cover to cover. (Yes, I am this weird!) And lately, I’ve learned the importance of quality ingredients and developed a taste for some things that aren’t always easy to find in Publix—like prosciutto or sliced asiago cheese. Trader Joe’s is a treasure trove of these kinds of items. There’s pizza dough that looks good and seems relatively cheap. There’s tzatziki sauce in plastic containers. (Coincidently, spotting this forced—yes, forced!—me to stop in at Kalamata’s on my way out of Green Hills and get a gyro. And as I write this, I’ve started craving Greek food like nobody’s business!) There’s cheeses you don’t see everywhere. (Some are expensive; some aren’t.) There’s more types of prosciutto than you can count on one hand, which is nice, since I’ve been having trouble finding ONE at my regular grocery store. There’s lots of organic foods, prepared foods that look quite delicious, and free trade coffee. I was kind of in foodie heaven.Trader Joe’s also uses brown paper bags, which made me happy for some reason and also reminded me of my childhood when that’s all you could get!

And they had flowers. Loads and loads of fresh flowers all smiling at you as you entered the store, some as cheap as $5 for a larger bundle than I expected. And they had sunflowers, which basically no store has right now. And we all know how much I love sunflowers!

Sure, Trader Joe’s doesn’t replace your regular grocery store. If you’re going to be baking or whatever, you’re going to have to look somewhere else, because things like chocolate chips don’t seem to live there. And some things are going to be cheaper at your local chain grocery store. But Trader Joe’s offers a nice selection and some interesting items you can’t get anywhere else.

And that, my friends, is why I fell in love with Trader Joe. That and the fact that he brings me flowers. Sunflowers!

P.S.: On a completely other note, I was late-ish for work again today. Seriously, still taking applications for this job. I may consider adding some minimal monetary reimbursement, because seriously, I need help! (I jest; I jest. Sort of. I can’t get to work on time for the life of me!)