{"id":4671,"date":"2019-04-01T07:28:19","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T05:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=4671"},"modified":"2019-04-22T14:29:05","modified_gmt":"2019-04-22T12:29:05","slug":"inconvenience-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=4671","title":{"rendered":"Inconvenience Store"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Hills. Hills. Everywhere hills! <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For many years and up until very recently, I lived very far\naway from any shop. There were three or four shops in my neighborhood, but getting\nto any of them required at least a 10-15 minute walk. With the shopping and the\ninevitability of a person in front of me who had somehow forgotten how shops\noperated (present, pack, pay) the whole experience took at least 45 minutes. 45\nminutes for a bottle of milk or a candy bar.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then there were the hills. That is, any shop I chose\ninvolved a hill. I know. I know. Really, Grandpa? Uphill. Both ways? Yep. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I went to a shop down the hill, I had to walk back up it\nor if I walked uphill to another shop, my walk started uphill. There was no\navoiding the hills. My flat was in the middle of a giant one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t a complaint; I loved living there. The walks were\ninvigorating, pleasant, they were incidental exercise. I\u2019d listen to a podcast,\nmusic, or just think or argue with my mind gremlins. I liked it. Plus, nothing shirk\noff the guilt of a candy bar like a 30 minute walk. But still, I associated\ncity living with a certain degree of locality convenience that I wasn\u2019t privy\nto and it made a difference in day to day life.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first place, I was paranoid about forgetting to pick something\nup at the store. I made lists, checked them twice. Because my local shop (12\nminute walk) was hit or miss with kitty litter, I\u2019d sometimes pick it up in the\ncity. And so there were several days I\u2019d go to the pub or to  an appointment lugging twenty pounds of sand\nin my backpack. I felt like Sisyphus or Atlas. If I weren\u2019t able to get the\nlitter at all, the cat would loudly push the few remaining pebbles around in\nher box, stand inside of it and poop on the floor, all the while giving me a\nlook which clearly sent the signal \u201cyou asked for this, buddy.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often a trip to the store was a negotiation point in our\nhousehold\u2019s domestic chores. I\u2019ll do the\ndishes if you go shopping. I\u2019ll clean the bathrooms if you go shopping.<\/em> If\nI really felt like going to the store and not doing the dishes, I knew the tactic\nwas to mention the hill. There\u2019s that\nhill.<\/em> If that didn\u2019t seal it, I\u2019d add: bit\nrainy today<\/em>. It was an easy touch on Burke, whose natural enemies include precipitation\nover 30% and any incline whose grade is above 20%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

And whoever went to the store always got more. Because the store\nwas not terribly convenient, we\u2019d make sure to make a list for everything we\nmight want. We had to exploit each trip to the store, because doing two trips\nin one day was almost out of the question. And so, a trip to the store for a\nbottle of milk because a trip to the store for dinner, dessert, cat food,\ntoilet paper, and a bottle of milk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now, no more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a shop across the street and a large supermarket less\nthan a 4 minute walk up the road. Going to the store is now suggested with\nabsolutely no gravity. I\u2019m running to the store. Sometimes I won\u2019t mention it;\nI\u2019ll just go. If it turns out that Burke needed something else or I forgot\nsomething, no problem, I\u2019ll just go back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state in which I go to the store has also changed a\ngreat deal. A 45 minute journey out of the flat often required proper outside\nattire. I was not just going to quickly visit the outside world, I was going to\nbe in public. I had to dress like a normal, mentally reasonable human being. Read:\npants. Perhaps pants were also prompted by the fact that next to the market was\na police station. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the shop I go to now can be viewed from my kitchen window,\nand, well, the rules have changed. My typical shop attire are Pajama bottoms,\ncrocs, sweatshirt, and a baseball cap. I have reverted back into an American\ncampus college student. I remember in university the number of people who waddled\ninto early morning classes with a to-go coffee, sweatshirts, and what were\nobviously pajama bottoms. Nobody really questioned it. It was a seven minute\nwalk to the classroom, so why not?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This might be viewed as insane by Czech woman, many of whom\nwill put on makeup and dress in a ball gown to buy a bottle of milk. But Czech\nmen are right there in this line of thinking.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Czech men are not terribly well-known for their keen fashion\nsense. And I say this now with the addendum that this is changing. Far more I see\nyounger Czech men dressed in fashionable suits and donning the current men\u2019s\nhaircuts and beard shapes. But your general older Czech man dresses purely for\nutility rather than for aesthetics. Monochrome outfits, Canadian tuxedos (denim\ntop and bottom), sweatpants and a tank top, flannel shirts tucked into cutoff\njean shorts. Anyone who lives here has seen these outfits on a daily basis. Accessories\ninclude an almost ubiquitous dedication to the fanny pack, to the belt clip\ncellphone holder, to the carry man purse, or to a belt pouch meant to transport\nany number of things \u2013 wallet, cigarettes, tobacco, pen and pencil, calculator.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of fashion, I have found my people. And so it is\nwith pride that I add to the local culture of my neighborhood in my own Americana\nway. When I step outside, I do it with no shame. I scratch tiredly. I slip my\nwallet out of my pajama pants. And I tell my neighbors: this, my friends, is the\nweekend and morning casual attire of an American who has no shame and needs\nkitty litter and maybe an avocado. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hills. Hills. Everywhere hills! For many years and up until very recently, I lived very far away from any shop. There were three or four shops in my neighborhood, but getting to any of them required at least a 10-15 minute walk. With the shopping and the inevitability of a person in front of me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/damiengaleone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/podoli.jpg?fit=960%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EvEu-1dl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4672,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4671\/revisions\/4672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}