A friend told me about some sort of wonder cure-all soup that’s supposed to be full of antioxidants and all the good stuff our bodies need. She swears this soup will help with anything that may be bothering you and she added “It will help you lose weight.” I wondered what she meant by that? Sure I’ve put on a few pounds in the last few years, but I think so have most of the people that I know. I didn’t think I needed some sort of wonder, cure-all soup to help me lose weight then I thought about something my four year old niece said to me. She came up to me the other day and showed me her hand and said that her hand was like our family. She pointed at each of her fingers saying each family member’s name, “this is mommy, this is my brother, this is gramme, this is po-po,” then she pointed at her thumb and said, “this one is you because it’s the fat one.” Everyone thought it was funny, much more funny than I thought it was - although I have to admit that I did laugh when she said that. As I laughed about it an old saying came to mind, something about only drunks and children telling you the truth, so I decided that maybe I did put on a few too many pounds on this year, so maybe this wonder, cure-all soup that would help me lose weight was not such a bad thing to . The first thing I had to do was go to Trader Joe’s for some of the ingredients because the truth be told, I don’t usually have the stuff it takes to make an antioxidant cure-all soup in my cupboards - now ask me if I have the stuff to make smores and that’s a whole different story.

I love Trader’ Joe’s because I go there so often that most of the employees already know me by name and it’s always a good feeling to walk in a store and have people greet you by name. The first thing I do when I go to Trader Joe’s is head for the demo area and grab a cup of coffee and then have a sample of whatever they are demonstrating that day. It’s funny because I’m not really a coffee drinker - I just started drinking coffee, so I drink it fairly week and pour lots of milk into it. For a while I didn’t drink any coffee other than the small sample cups at Trader Joe’s but I’ve progressed to a cup every once in awhile during work, especially during those long, snore-fest Monday and Thursday morning conference call meetings.

Another thing I like about Trader Joe’s is the rustic, artisan bread. I thought I would buy some and hollow it out into a bread bowl for my wonder soup - I know, I’m adding more carbs to the soup and probably taking away all the wonder from it’s wonder properties, but it’s really good bread. Well, as I finished gathering the ingredients for this wonder soup and putting them in my basket, I went to the bread section and that’s when I saw an old lady sneeze into her hands, rub her hands together like she was using some sort of nose mucus hand sanitizer, and then she started to reach into the packages of artisan bread, feeling each loaf, I guess to find the softest, freshest one. She did this like it was not out of the ordinary for her to rub her mucus covered hands over loaves of bread. “Oh man,” I thought to myself, “I like that bread and now I’ll never be able to buy it again without wondering if an old lady touched my bread with slimy booger hands.” I guess if I want to think on the positive -this is a good way to cut down on the carbs.