why Mom can't go to Costco alone

There's a reason why I can't let my mom go to Costco alone. I decided to represent this with a short dialogue. This is the kind of dialogue that goes between me and my mom ALL THE TIME, translated into English from Konglish. unless she is angering at me, of course.

Mom: These are the right bars, right?

Me: uh….no.…I said NatureValley Bars. These are ZBars.

Mom: WHATTT

Me: …That’s why I told you to buy the bars when I’m there. Or to call me.

Mom: I did call you. You didn’t pick up.

Me: …you called my cell phone. I can’t hear that. We also have a home phone.

Mom: ……………………..whatever. I’m returning them the next time I go to Costco.

Me: No, I’ll just eat them instead or something.

Mom: No, I’m returning them.

Me: It’s fine, I’ll eat them.

Mom: NUUUUUUUUUUU I NEED TO RETURN THEM.

Me: But I’m hungr—

Mom: NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.

....in addition to the ZBars, my mom brought home bell peppers (as I predicted), two boxes of apples (as I predicted), 5 jumbo lint rollers, bananas, and chocolate for our neighbors. She also bought a pair of headphones I wasn't supposed to see and a box of pomegranates! Good job, Mom, the pomegranates were unexpected. :)

GUYS. We're ALL Prism flavored!

I was surfing the interwebs when all of a sudden I saw an ad. For 5 gum.

Prism flavored.....an electric watermelon.

I'm still feeling sorta blah creativity-wise, but i've just been getting over it by doing chem homework, and seeing this ad just made me feel a lot better.

But really. Who thought of that name? What do prisms have to do, in any way, with watermelons? or electric ones, for that matter? How do people make those associations?

It kind of makes me think of those ridiculous internet/magazine quizzes. like, Which celebrity are you? What is yo' animal? Who is yo' Twilight love match? (wow, ew).

...If you're mostly A's, you're THIS. If you're mostly B's, you're THAT. If you're mostly C's, you're NEITHER, and consequently very-very, very very very very VERY unacceptably lame. You should change yourself so you're either mostly A's or mostly B's, got it?

But it's not just those quizzes. People in general, I think, have the tendency to try and label themselves under certain categories. It's supposed to refrect yo' chaaaaractaaar and sho' yu de weeeei. Even at camps, I've heard random questions like, If you were a FRUIT (just imagine you were!) what FRUIT would you be?....or maybe you are actually a VE-GE-TA-BLE?!?!? If your name was a CITY, what CITY would you want? Rrrrrromantic, like Paris? Byoootiful, like Bellevue? Sketchy, like Las Vegas (i see what you did there, buddy)?

It's not exactly a bad thing to want to put a label on things, I guess. But I also think it obscures things. It makes people focus on a single aspect of something, rather than looking at the whole. If we looked at things holistically, there'd be no way for us to label ourselves like that. There would be no words. But, I think, there would be stories.

From what I've read of the workshop stories, so many of the characters are so filled out, so real, so 3D. And it's not from direct description. It's from their experiences that I witness in the stories written about them, and sooner or later, while I'm reading the story, I feel like I'm almost reading a huge character sketch every time, because I get to know the character so well! But if you asked me to describe the character, I wouldn't be able to find the right words at all. The feelings that the stories evoke......they're somethin' else. No words to describe the thoughts and sympathy they grow, Prism flavored or not.