January 29th
2012
Saturday
9:30 AM
Hey there, I’m Marian Risette Lavinzo. But you can call me Marian.
I just finished cooking breakfast for my family recently, and now I’m cleaning up the kitchen. Cinnamon Chocolate Pancakes, a recipe written and taught by my mother Ozellia. It’s rare that I ever burn anything, but my husband doesn’t mind it.
Jerald has been wonderful for these many years of my life, I’m glad that I chose to marry him long ago. Before I made the final decision, my mother asked about my commitment.
She wanted to know if I was ready to be with him for the rest of my entire life, no matter what happens. I was certain about my decision, and willing to go through with it. This was my choice.
With that answered, she told me some important wisdom: “Never cheat on your husband with another man, keep any temptations of that away. Always communicate about certain issues, and don’t break up with them unless it's absolutely necessary.
I made sure to take that knowledge to heart, and I’ll never forget it. Jerald is the only man that my love is dedicated to, and no other man shall take that away.
Once the cleaning is finished, I’ll spend time with my son David. Making sure that he gets plenty of family-time. One of my daily tasks is making sure that his noise-cancelling headphones are fully charged.
There have been times I’ve forgotten to charge up his headphones, and had to use winter ear muffs. Not as effective for what I’ve seen, that’s why it's important to make sure they are ready to go.
David likes to have his favorite dinosaur-themed books read to him. While he doesn’t mind reading by himself, he enjoys being read to by me or my husband, or even someone he likes.
12:05 PM
Saturday
It’s time for me to do some shopping while my husband goes out to lunch with his co-workers. He tends to return home after two-thirty in the afternoon, plenty of time to get groceries or other things.
David was dressed and ready to go, after changing him into a fresh diaper. I’ve also re-supplied the diaper bag with the important baby care essentials, and grabbed my white purse. My precious little man has learned a few more words in Italian: Gelato (Ice Cream) and Arrivederci (Goodbye).
Perhaps he’ll take an Italian Language elective in high-school, depending if that’s one of the options to choose from.
Now I had one question on my mind, where was I going to shop today? It was going to be either Walmart or somewhere else. However… that store hasn’t exactly been pleasant in my experience.
Most of the customers there are either karens or inconsiderate trash heaps who think of only themselves. Even the manager acts impolitely towards the customers, but at least the owner and other workers are nicer.
Several days ago, I was trying to return a pack of diapers that were greatly damaged by what I believe was mishandling of the product. The manager refused my receipt, claiming they couldn’t verify anything. Almost got ready to verbally tear into him, and it wasn’t going to be pretty.
Thankfully… the owner stepped in and helped me out by replacing the damaged pack with a newer one. I’m glad there’s some good people in this world. Who was even handling that last package? Musclemen? It’ll never be answered.
With everything prepped and ready to go, I brought David to the family minivan and buckled him into his baby-seat. Placing the diaper bag on the front passenger seat if I need access to it.
Once I backed out of our driveway, it was off to the city to search for a potential store to shop in. Traffic was slightly heavy at this time, must be the lunch rush. That’s the only theory I’ve got.
After ten minutes of driving around, I’d come across this one smaller grocery store and decided to check it out. It’s appearance was intriguing to me, and it was nothing that I’ve ever seen before. There was a sign that said ‘Kim Family Grocery’ in plain black letters behind a white background.
“Okay sweetie, we’re going to check out this small grocery store. It won’t be for too long.” I told my son while parking the vehicle in an empty spot, wanting to be close to the entrance.
Before getting my son out of the vehicle, I opened up the trunk and took out his dinosaur-themed stroller. Making sure that it unfolded properly, this was an expensive stroller after all. I’ve also taken the opportunity to take a reusable grocery bag with me as well. Wasn’t really anyone here right now, which meant I was the only one.
With David in his stroller and my car properly locked up, I headed inside the building to see what it was like. Upon entering, I was greeted by a friendly lady at the register who was a female monkey. She had a name tag that said, ‘Ranae Kim’.
“Welcome to Kim Family Grocery, don’t be afraid to ask any questions!” She told me as I waved to her and said, “Thank you!”
I looked around at all the goods that were being sold, and to my surprise… It was mostly Korean goods with other products mixed in. This is something I hadn't seen before.
My son was curious about all the products he was looking at, and pointed towards something called ‘Banana Milk.’ with excitement. I looked over the back of it for a moment and decided “Why not?” and placed three of them in the shopping bag.
Exploring the store further led me to find some other interesting food products like samgyeopsal, gochujang, and a few cans of a drink called Milkis. It’s apparently a milk and yogurt soda. Which intrigued me, so I decided to get it.
My eyes fell on another that I was interested in: an instant cup of ramen by the name of Cheese Rabokki. I’ve never had this before, so I shrugged and smiled to myself while grabbing a few cups. David then asked, “Can I try too?”
Unsure about really letting him try spicy ramen, I decided on the response of, “Just a little, but not too much. It’s really spicy.” as I placed them into my shopping bag.
Once I had finished looking around and picking what I wanted to buy, it was time to head over to the check-out to pay for my groceries. There were two registers from what I saw, and decided on going for the second one where that lady was.
“Found everything you were looking for?” The female monkey asked me while I was unloading the grocery bag. I nodded my head and answered, “Yeah, I got a variety of items, and something for my son. I am going to try cooking with this, uhh… sam-gee yeop-sal.” had trouble speaking that name.
She nodded while checking all my items and adding up the price of each one, with a digital beep sounding off each time. “Ah… and with some gochujang. This red bean paste goes well with the three-layered beef. That’s what samgyeopsal is.”
“Oh, I see. The knowledge is appreciated, I’m sure my husband won’t mind giving it a try.” I responded while my son hyper-focused on the cash-register itself. “I’ve never shopped here before, I tend to do most of my shopping at Walmart.”
“Glad you’ve decided to visit…” She said to me while briefly looking at my son and waving to him. “Is this your son? He looks adorable.”
I nodded in response while petting him on the head, saying to the lady running the register, “Ahuh, his name is David. He’s autistic, and he’s very sensitive to loud noises. That’s why I bought him Noise-Cancelling Headphones. He’s also got an Italian accent, since my husband is from Sicily. He also knows some words in Italian as well.” as she watched her add up the last item.
“Poor dearie, he must be a wonderful boy for someone as different as him.” She told me in response. I watched as the lady paused for a moment before calculating the final price for all items.
I replied in response, “Indeed he is, he can be rather energetic at times and he really likes dinosaurs. Even his bedroom is themed to it. But I’ve done my best to care for him.” as my son made some playful t-rex roars.
She smiled in response while chuckling after hearing my son impersonate a dinosaur, and then spoke to me saying, “I understand, taking care of children is never easy. Now… all your items come out to twelve dollars and thirty one cents. I’m Ranae Kim by the way. You can just call me Ranae.”
The price of the items didn’t seem too bad, it was average at best. I took out the appropriate amount of cash from my purse and handed it to her while saying to them, “Thank you Ranae, I hope to see you again.”
With my shopping completed, it was back to the car with all the groceries I bought. I opened up the trunk and placed the shopping bag inside, closing it afterwards. It was a good thing that I decided to shop here instead of the usual place.
“Momma? Can I have Banana Milk?” My son asked as I placed him in his baby-seat.
“I’ll let you have one when we get back, sweetie. I don’t want there to be a mess in the car” I told him while buckling him in. He nodded his head and said, “Okay.” as I got into the driver seat and started up the car.
From there, I drove out of the parking lot and began the trip back home. Not as much traffic this time around thankfully. I definitely look forward to cooking that beef for my husband, and I bet David might enjoy it too. We’ll have to see.
