The Luck of the American

St. Patrick's Day was difficult this year.  Difficult because I could not find corned beef anywhere.  I have not a drop of Irish blood in me, and I don't even really understand what the day is all about, but dangit!  I was going to have corned beef for dinner!

As the grocery ads were released on Friday, I did a frantic search to see which of the five local grocery stores had corned beef on sale.  Of the five, I found one that even made mention of it in their ad.  When I made it to that store a few hours later, I walked around the meat department at least three times.  Where the heck was the corned beef?  Sure, I could find turkeys and chickens and pork livers and legs of lamb and RABBIT, but the blasted corned beef was nowhere to be seen.  After asking the meat guy, my suspicions were confirmed: there was no corned beef.  No corned beef until the next day.

The next morning dawned cold and snowy.  I walked to another nearby store to grab a few items and to check out their meat department.  They hadn't corned beef either.  Neither did the other store I went to a little bit later.  Finally, around noon, I called the store from the day before.  Did they have the corned beef now?  Yes, the did.  Did they have lots?  No, they only received one case.  Should I come now?  Yes, HURRY!

Keith and I scrambled to the car and were soon on our way.  We arrived a few minutes later and I took a fast walk around the meat department.  No corned beef.  I decided I would never find it on my own so I asked another meat man.  Do you have any corned beef?  We did, but I think it is gone.  Can you look?

I followed the meat man down the aisle and to the right.  There, on the refrigerated bed, was a lone and solitary corned beef.  I got the last one.

I consider myself lucky, that I actually was able to find corned beef, especially since I got the last one at that particular store.  However, a question comes to mind:  in a city that has 5 different grocery chains, why does only one of them receive only one case of corned beef the day before St. Patrick's Day?  It only reaffirms my thoughts from Thanksgiving--that Canadians do not know how to celebrate holidays properly.  At least, not like Americans.

Dinner turned out great, by the way.  And I really should try rabbit sometime.