All that changed at 10:30 AM, when, after braving the Charlottesville Area Transit system and a particularly vicious bout of East Coast humidity, I pushed my shopping cart into the new Whole Foods store on Hydraulic Road. As it turns out, I entered through the exit, but that didn't make my first sight of the inside of a Whole Foods any less impressive. It was massive and filled to the brim with natural and organic goodness. True, it bothered me a little that the raspberries I was buying came from California, because I am just as pro-local food as I am pro-organic. Still, it was hard to keep an enormous and very silly grin from spreading across my face. There were dispensers and neat little paper bags for nuts and spices. I had to triple check the cheddar I was buying to be sure it was really milk-based cheese, and not a vegan alternative. There was a whole section devoted to almond milk, and another to gluten and dairy-free ice cream, made from coconut milk. I could buy passion fruit sorbetto and organic pecans. Sure, it was a bit pricier than I was comfortable with, and yes, Whole Foods's founder is a strident libertarian who opposed the healthcare bill. I didn't care. As I wandered through aisle after aisle of liberal heaven, I wondered what on earth I had been doing with my life all these years. My eyes could hardly take in such beauty.
Clearly I'm being hyperbolic; I'm not about to regularly patronize Whole Foods Market of Charlottesville, Virginia. I'm a college student. My wallet would never forgive me. But with this experience under my belt and a new Trader Joe's on the horizon, I feel as though I've gained some serious liberal cred. Oh how I love you, People's Republic of Charlottesville.
