I am not a freak!
After arriving back home on Sunday, I’ve been settling back into life in Oxford. This term I start major work on my Master’s thesis. Current deadline is May 7th for submitting my dissertation proposal.
Shopping list The main topic of this post, however, is to elicit reader sympathy and feedback confirming that I am not a freak. This morning, I, as many people do on a regular basis, went grocery shopping. In order to go grocery shopping, I wrote up a shopping list, as is common practice. Here’s a picture of my shopping list.
When EvilHousemateCaroline saw the list, she asked why it was written scattered all over the page, and I explained that the list is laid out according to the store layout. She called me a freak! Can you believe that? Lots of people have organized shopping lists. When I tried to explain this to FormerlyNiceNowEvilHousemateJane, she also called me a freak. I guess these Brits just aren’t civilized enough to understand such complexity.
Update 2006/08/16: See this follow-up post.
Comment by Lino
Does that say “pain bread”? What exactly is that?
Comment by Heather
Douglas, I am sorry but you are so such a freak. You could take lessons in being normal and sane from me. 
Comment by Joe
Interesting… it appears you’ve left “brittle wooden sticks” off this list. Am I to understand they don’t offer these in British groceries? 
Other than that, cool organization! It looks like a flying goose constellation.
Comment by Douglas
“pain” refers to “pain au chocolate” (a chocolate pastry) and “bread” refers, obviously, to bread. They just happen to be right beside each other in the store.
Comment by jesse
Not a freak but not a sheep. The only remarkable thing about your list is its cool rationality. Henceforth, I intend to use a similarly organized list.
Where is the entrance to the store? Bottom-right hand corner?
Comment by Douglas'mother
Douglas
Some normal people organize their shopping list,but not all over the page. The first thing on their list is the first thing they encounter in the store and so until the end. You didn’t learn all of this from me
Comment by Douglas
Jesse, the entrance to the store that I use is at the bottom left, and there is another entrance at the top left; cashiers are along the left hand edge.
Comment by Dictator Demasi
Chocolate, eh? Sounds bad. Although I do like your method of making a shopping list. If I ever make one, I’ll use the same approach. My basic shopping technique is to walk the aisles and grab things which I need.
Comment by Donny
Douglas, I glanced at your posting and originally thought that the picture was some sort of schematic representation of your Master’s thesis. Or worse yet, the thesis itself.
Anywho… At 110, for example, we can visit any one of six grocery stores, depending on who’s going, time of day, general mood, particular grocery elements (e.g. Cheemo brand perogies are available at Sobeys but not Zehrs), and so on. So location-oriented grocery lists aren’t particularly useful for us.
I notice a definite lack of meat on this list. What’s up with that?
Comment by EvilHousemateCaroline
Ah, but what Douglas conveniently ‘forgets’ to tell you all is that his ‘listing rationale’ makes no provision for any items of ‘unknown store location’. If I hadn’t told him where to find burger buns (unsurprisingly, next to the bread – but Douglas was too absorbed with his list to figure this out), he’d have been at a total loss…
He also didn’t tell you that he also uses his list to organise his shopping route. Yes, us ‘MereMortalHousemates’ just arrange our basket contents as we go around to make sure that things don’t get squashed. But Douglas plans his route around the shop so that he picks up all the heavier items first. Now this might sound sensible – unless you are familiar with the shop layout of Tesco’s. I dread to think what circuitous route Douglas has to take…
And for those of you still in any doubt about the matter…if Douglas had actually used his list to shop, he would have bought some kind of ready meal instead of orange juice…
Comment by Meredi
Whoa.
Tell me, if you already know where things are located in the store, why can’t you just add that information in your head as you go along? You know, write a list like the one your mom described, and then combine the two sets of information as you walk? Like NORMAL people?
– from Meredi, who often forgets to even make a list
P.S. When’d you add the spelling checker? Suggestions for my name include: “Mered Mired Mored Merridie Marred Nereid Merredin Merit Meres Merged Meted Meredith Meed Mere Moored Merest Mardi Merer Dredi Fredi Married Mewed Sered”. Iiiiinteresting.
Comment by Andrew
What is unquestionably more freakish is that this topic has spawned more feedback than your trip.
I’m off to give a prayer of thanks that you did not pursue your grade school ambition of driving taxi cabs….
By the way, when you go for a run… do you chart that out to?
Comment by Cecilia
This is brilliant! You’re a genius!
