It's things like Tom's toothpaste and Dr. Bronner's mysteriously-multi-purpose-but-seems-like-it's-probably-just-soap soap that make me wary of someday leaving major metropolises (metropoli?). Not because they don't have these things in the suburbs -- they probably do, and even if they don't that's why God and Al Gore created the internet -- but because I remember in sixth grade my best friend's parents were chiropractors and she used Tom's toothpaste (in my mind, these things go hand in hand) and I remember feeling really sorry for her. Like her toothpaste wasn't pink and it didn't sparkle and that seemed wrong.
I was reminded of all this when my brother came to visit me and borrowed my toothpaste, only to leave the bathroom reeling in disgust because Tom's is really baking soda-y and not artificially sweetened, which is something I wouldn't even think of toothpastes as being until I switched to Tom's. Then this morning I thought of it again, because we'd finished off our Tom's and I was wrestling with an essentially empty tube of Arm & Hammer, another really baking soda-y and not brother approved toothpaste, in an attempt to wrench a pea sized dollop from its clutches. The good news is, I prevailed. The bad news is, I gagged as soon as I tasted it because I'd gotten so used to the other kind.
But it's way too soon to stress, because I've got no thoughts of leaving soon. And who knows, maybe all my neighbors will be super impressed that I can use also my body wash to wash my hair AND my minivan.
