How to Outsmart The Cheese Shop

If you read yesterday’s post, or if you watch NBC in the morning, you know that the Today show was broadcasting from Colonial Williamsburg this morning. I opted to not go, as sleep is paramount in my list of basic necessities. Also at the top is food. I’ll get there. As I approached Confusion Corner this morning, I noticed that there was a good amount of cars leading to the intersection. This allowed me to take notice of my surroundings. When it was my turn, I proceeded slowly and peered down Duke of Gloucester. It was clear of human life for a long way, but in the distance I could see a barricade and a sea of tourists beyond it. I second-guessed my decision to not go, but made my way to my parking space nonetheless and ultimately to my desk. I wondered if I’d miss anything, but this is a feeling I felt every time I didn’t go out on a Friday night when I was 22. I’d get over it eventually. I would work today, just as everyone around me would. Those losers would stand for hours and eventually go home exhausted and smelly.

At noon, I left my desk to take my lunch break. I drove to the post office to send out a birthday gift for Juliet, and then headed toward CW to score my favorite sandwich from the Cheese Shop. I was shocked to find that there were two parking spaces to choose from, because anyone knows that you can never find any parking at lunch time. The crowd has left! SCORE! So I entered the Cheese Shop only to find that I was very, very mistaken. It was apparent to me that EVERYONE EVER was wanting a Cheese Shop sandwich at the same time. The crowd was astonishing! I waited a line like this once…ONCE!…and it took an hour, and I was very, very pissy, and I did not enjoy my sandwich that day. Today I went over to the counter and found out what their phone number was and placed an order over the phone. “What’s the pick up time?” “Fifteen minutes”. True! I took a walk down DOG Street for seven minutes and found that it was still pretty crowded. Of course, all of the Today Show folks were long gone, but their lemmings were still hanging around. On this cathartic stroll I realized that I haven’t taken this walk in about a year, and I kind of missed it. It’s a gorgeous day today, and we’re expecting a nor’easter to arrive tonight-ish/tomorrow, so the timing was perfect. At the end of seven minutes, I turned and headed back, craftily dodging road apples, just in time to pick up my veggie sandwich and leave most likely before I would have even ordered had I stayed in the shop. That put me in such a great mood. A good night’s sleep paired with spectacular weather, a killer sandwich and not having to wait around rules!