Scenes from Whole Foods on the Eve of Hurricane Sandy

I know it was stupid, but I waited until pretty last-minute to shop for my hurricane Sandy provisions. I had been babysitting down in the Bowery for much of the weekend, so as I finished with the kiddos and started to head uptown Sunday afternoon, I figured it better to get my shopping done sooner than later. Plus, when I thought for a minute about shopping on the Lower East Side versus the Upper West Side, I had the vague feeling that people downtown would be a bit more unwindulaxed. Probably because those of us who attended college in NYC associate the LES with being drunk and carefree.

I think I was (kind of) right. While my roommate texted me from the line to get into the market closest to our apartment, I was waiting on line at the Whole Foods butcher for a pound of ground beef while the guy next to me talked openly on the phone with his marijuana dealer. "Hurricane weed prep, man..." he said to me, rolling his eyes and pointing to his iPhone.

They were low on potato chips and out of onions, but I was able to get my hands on the staples (beer, frozen pizza, potato chips), tossed in some impulse buys (avocado, lemonade-flavored gummies, minty Newman-O's), and grabbed some non-perishables for good measure.

That's when I got in line. The line that took nearly two hours and wrapped in and out of every aisle. Whole Foods employees stood at major intersections, directing traffic so that pedestrian shoppers could get through and ensuring that there were no major pile-ups between the 10 items or less line and the 11 items plus line. This one dbag moved through the store, filming the whole thing on his cell phone, asking us to wave.

I stood in front of an old woman who shouted at passers-by, complained to anyone who would listen, and insisted that "this was all because of Mitt Romney" and that the hurricane was "a capitalist plot to get us to buy everything at Whole Foods."

Once we made it to the register, dance music pumped over the speakers and weary cashiers explained how they'd been at the same register for over twelve hours, with no end in sight. I ended up with enough food to last us a week, which I guess was the point.

But, hoping everyone is safe over the next few days. And as long as you're safe, happy pigging out!