SOMETHING ANYTHING

"Did you get the picture you wanted?", asked the lady collecting the carts outside of Trader Joe's.

She saw I was still fiddling with my troublesome lens - the one where the autofocus sometimes works - so she made her way to the store entrance with the two carts she'd gathered from the parking lot, leaving me to continue with my composition of the lone cart along the wall.

There is an empty building space (the old Saks building) in between the new Trader Joes' and Williams Sonoma at the Arboretum. I have no idea what the new store will be, but for some reason there are several large photographs plastered on the windows. When I saw the bright red shopping cart against the black and white street photo, I knew I had to make my own photograph.

On the way into the store, I noticed some beautiful green plants which I thought might look good in black and white. Sage commented on how soft the leaves were and I watched with anticipation as he grabbed at the leaves.

The day had been a challenge with the younger two pushing my buttons all day long. First, the one with the waterworks. With her being able to cry on demand, I'm guessing she'd do well as an actress. No onions needed.

"Sagey threw my shoe...why don't you care about that...Sagey broke my special magic wand...don't take my picture...". On it went.

Then mischievous Sage with "it wasn't me". No, it's never you, is it.

Cinnamon finally let me take her photo and showed me the broken magic wand that Sage broke. "By accident", he claims. He has a knack for breaking a lot of things. Somehow they're never intentional.

At that point I decided I needed to do something, anything. Get in the car with the kids and go somewhere, anywhere. Which is how we ended up at Trader Joe's buying an orange for tomorrow's cake, more Greek feta, provolone, spaghetti for tonight's dinner, Nero d'Avola, two different chocolates, and a small box of lasagna with which I plan to create some kind of vegetarian meal for one next week.

Sometimes when things seem impossible, the best thing to do is to get up, get out, and do something...anything.