TURNING TABLES

Remember how I told you that Jen is a shopaholic? Well...I guess she still is. She's just a different type of shopaholic. Jen is originally from Toronto. She met her husband in San Diego (UCSD) and then followed him to OK. The transition of moving from places with real grocery stores like Trader Joe's to a land of not so great grocery stores has not been easy for her. I totally get it. After our first Trader Joe's trip, I was smitten. Then when I went vegetarian and food became more expensive I became that person who spent all her vacation money buying food. That's what Jen's trip was like this weekend. She bought food and then we had to figure out how to cram everything into her tiny little carry-on. I'm pretty smitten with KCMO and love showing visitors around, but I had a particularly good time taking Jen to some of my favorite haunts. I knew she'd love Bella Naploi's, the little Italian place in my neighborhood. She used to spend summers in Italy with her grandma and this place not only had a pasta dish that tasted like her Nona's, but groceries that she could only find in Italy. She got so excited when she came across the display of Nutella sold in commemorative juice glasses she had to buy one. Then we had to figure out how to fit it into her tiny carry-on. She said that next time she'd bring a suitcase.

We had such a great weekend and before we knew it, I was dropping her off at the airport and saying goodbye (which makes me cry now). About half an hour later I received this text from her.

I thought she was joking. She was not joking. Nutella is a security risk because it's a paste and she had more than three ounces. I really thought she was kidding, but am not surprised she ate all that Nutella. And yes...we really did eat popcorn for lunch. She couldn't fit that into the carry-on.