"Where do you think they keep the rum?"

I was making this amazing chocolate buttermilk cake with chocolate buttercream frosting for a party we had this weekend, and one of the ingredients it called for was:
Rum (preferably Meyer's)

Guys, I don't even know where to find rum much less the difference between regular rum and Meyer's rum. So off we went to Central Market, because Central Market has everything, right?

Wrong.

So there we were in the wine section wandering around and trying not to run our cart into any $50 bottles of Bordeaux or Pinot Noir looking for the rum.

"Where do you think they'd keep it?" Joey asked, looking around with a lost expression on his face.

"I have absolutely no idea." I said, looking quite lost myself.

We walked up and down every aisle and finally went to the cooking wine section. Joey pointed to a bottle of something in French.

"What...what is that?"

"I think it's some kind of non-alcoholic apple cider. Maybe" I said, analyzing the bottle without touching it. It was expensive and you know "break it, you buy it".

I went over to look at a cedar cabinet with lots of bottles inside it, and Joey took another turn around the wine section. I found him again a short time later by the refrigerated beer with a Foodie (that's what Central Market calls their helper people) talking at him. She seemed flirtatious.

"Did you find it?" I asked loudly.

The flirtatious Foodie looked at me with biggish, surprised eyes and replied, "We don't carry rum."

"Thanks then," I said.

And, with that, Joey and I walked out of the alcohol section at Central Market without breaking a single bottle of anything.

I wound up using imitation rum that I found at Target. Ugh. Totally not the same thing, but it got the job done. The cake, however, was delicious...