Food Run

So, last year, when I was stuck between a whole slew of shitty jobs and forced to move back to Sooke with my parents, life was pretty bad.  I have all sorts of horror stories, but the one I'm going to share involves Pizza.

See, I had worked a somewhat decent amount of hours that week, and decided I was going to buy a pizza.  I had worked a ten hour shift, and taken a two hour busride to get home.  It was nine PM, and I had just been paid.  I was going to order a late night pizza, and share it with the family members who were still awake.

This being Sooke, though, the pizza place had shut down.  I let the phone ring four times, until an annoyed guy answered and curtly told me that the place had closed fifteen minutes ago.

At nine p.m.

The fact is, Sooke basically shuts down after nine.  The only things that stay working are the gas station, the McDonald's (though only the drive-thru is open;  you can't walk in), and the street lights.  That's it.

This meant that if I was hungry, I had to walk down to the Chevron, and make do with godawful potato chips or stale donuts.

Flash forward to today.  I live in the middle of Victoria, where basically anything I want is a ten minute walk away.  There's a comic book store three blocks away, a pharmacy across the street, two liquor stores within a block, a nearby grocery store, three book stores within two blocks, a guitar store down the street, and so many coffee shops.  The point is - if I want for something, I can get it.  And if it's 3 am, and I want food... I can get food.

I think some religious folks might say that material wealth such as this does not equate to spiritual wealth.  That Sooke, for all its faults, is more spiritually "pure" because of the lack of an all-night grocery store or a donair place that can sell you fresh lamb at 3 am.  But I have to say, those people are wrong.

There is something so satisfying about ordering a midnight pizza. Or hot dogs on the street corner with Mr. Tube Steak.  Or a timmy's run at 2 am.

My theory?  Small towns rely on closed social groups - you know everyone, so you have a group to draw upon.  In a city, that's thrown out the window, and because of this, everyone subconsciously realizes "we're all in this together" and acts accordingly.

But maybe I'm just happy, because it's 1 am, and I have warm food that I didn't have to cook.