trader joe’s spiced cider

mmmm…

it’s that time of year again.

fall.

for some people, that means football games. for others, crackling leaves under foot. for a lot of people, it means pumpkin spice lattes at starbucks.

for me, it means spiced cider!

yesterday, as I was sitting in my house, freezing, I stopped bemoaning the end of summer long enough to realize that it was now fall, and that meant that trader joe’s would have their spiced cider in stock!

I posted this wonderful realization on facebook to share my good news with the world, and was ecstatic to have a friend comment that their local TJ’s had a huge display of it already! YES!

so, after picking up shane yesterday afternoon, we had about an hour to kill before it was time to get layla. I needed some lettuce and salsa from the store. I figured we were going to go to safeway, which is right there. and then I thought of the cider again.

I looked at the clock.

I did a quick little calculation in my head of how far we had to go and how long we had (which is a totally ridiculous thing for me to do. I have absolutely no concept of how long it takes for me to get places… frequently evidenced by my habitual tardiness.) and decided that we could make it. we could get ALL the way to redmond and back, plus running in to the store, grabbing the lettuce, the salsa, AND the spiced cider. no problem. and it was totally worth it.

so we did it. we got there, we navigated the most heinous parking lot EVER, and I dashed inside. I headed to produce, because I knew where that was, and grabbed some lettuce. then I saw some tubs of salsa in the refrigerated section next to produce. perfect. and then I started to look around. there was a display of bottled juices on an endcap. that must be it… no. I found the juice aisle. not there. I ran from one end of the store to the other. nothing. I could feel the walls of hope crashing down around me… (yes, it was THAT dramatic!) so I got in line. I didn’t have any more time to waste on this. when it was my turn to check out, I hopefully asked the cashier if they happened to have it in stock yet. she said no. I almost cried.

so I left. I took my lettuce and salsa and went home.

well, actually, I went to go pick up layla from school.

I was so disappointed!

later in the evening, I heard from a different friend that the totem lake store has it in already. so I made a mental note to ask my dad (who goes there often) to grab me a bottle next time he was there.

fast forward to this afternoon.

I’m talking on the phone with my mother. while we’re talking, I ask her to ask my dad if he’s going to trader joe’s any time soon. she asks what I want there, and I tell her, “well, it’s fall.” she gets it. I hear the following conversation, muddled, in the the background:

mom: rachel wants to know if you are going to be going to trader joe’s?

dad: no, I just went. but I have a bottle of that cider in the refrigerator.

mom: what refrigerator?

dad: the refrigerator at the other house.

at this point, I’ve jumped out of my seat and yelled, “WHAT?!?!!!”

she tells me that he says there’s a bottle of cider in the refrigerator at their other house. (if you didn’t know, their ‘other’ house is the house down the street from us… the house they haven’t moved into quite yet.)

and now I look accusingly at shane. “did you know there was a bottle of cider in grandma and grandpa’s refrigerator???”

“yeah,” he says, “that’s been there awhile.”

“and you knew this yesterday, when you let me drive all the way to redmond  to buy LETTUCE AND SALSA and get all disappointed because they didn’t have any cider????”

he just looked at me.

at that point, I grabbed the key to their house and took a walk down the road.

and there it was.

in their refrigerator.

all along.

well, I’m happy to report that fall has officially fallen, and I’ve officially welcomed it with a mug-full of sweet, steaming awesomeness…

happy fall, everyone.

and get some of this cider. you won’t be disappointed!