People watching...

It is HOT out here. Today, in order to escape the triple digits, i decided to spend my afternoon at Barnes and Noble. Mostly because i can sit, uninterrupted, for hours... in an air conditioned building... for FREE! And, it helps that i enjoy reading as well. But, more than reading, i enjoy the people. I must get the thrill of people watching from my Mom. Once, we sat at California Disney, and just laughed to ourselves about the interesting people. Here are a few of the humorous things i saw today.

Colorful woman: Oh my. Blue pants. Pink shirt. Yellow sweater. Top it all off with multi colored sandals to match. A book called "No more meltdowns." And you have the people watcher's delight!

Scene Kid: Love it. TOO tight girly pants. White shirt with abstract face on it. Strutting his stuff over to the latest fiction. Completely oblivious that his "awesome" hair cut is simply a mullet mixed with a flat-iron. Classic.

Kids in the corner: This was weird. There were a ton of teenage kids... maybe a bit younger... in the "anime" section. Just sitting all over the floor, engulfed in their Japanese animated books. My brother used to be into that and i pictured him as a geeky 13 year old, sitting on the floor of an overcrowded bookstore, dying to find out the latest adventures in DragonBall Z!

Mother and Daughter: What a pair! Socially awkward to say the least, but endearing. The mom continually asked the daughter if she was ok... if she was comfortable... etc. The daughter politely answered that she was fine, when Lord knows she'd much rather be in a cozy chair then leaning against a rack of cookbooks and sitting uncomfortably on the ground. I noticed the Mom's neon green scrunchie, and her bright blue; over-applied eyeshadow and couldn't help but check on the daughter. Luckily she had grown out of that phase with the rest of us and looked like a typical teenage girl. Exclaiming to her mother how upset she was over some celebrity being caught with marijuana, as her mother calmly replied, "Well, sometimes you just don't know, honey." And she returned her attention the her book about I Love Lucy.

Dating Couple: How sweet, i thought, they came here to read together. But i was denied the joy of that thought rather quickly. Boy slumps into chair. T-shirt with a kid on it, flipping the "double duece." Opens up a book (a picture book mind you) and sighs loudly. He OBVIOUSLY doesn't want to be there. Girl places herself in chair and fixes her skirt around her. Opens up her bright pink novel and begins to read intently. Boy gets up and leaves plenty of times, and a dozen or more people come to see... "Is this seat taken?" Without even lifting her eyes girl simply replies, "yes" and continues her reading. Boy returns to use girls bright pink cell phone to have a loud conversation with his mother. Girl complains about being hungry. (I'm happy now cuz they might leave soon). Boy says that there is a Starbucks in the store. "What would i get from Starbucks!?" (i wanted to give her options but thought it best to leave my job at the workplace, right?). Girl complains about only having ten dollars. Boy gets up and stomps off. Girl stands up and follows. I continue peacefully in my reading. And... scene.

Starbucks customer: Ok... it's always weird to see a customer someplace outside of our store. But this one was a treat. She is this crazy lady who comes in and gets an extremely unhealthy version of a seemingly healthy drink. Iced black tea... harmless. TWELVE pumps of classic syrup... death in a cup. She frequents our store, sometimes twice daily, always leaving with said drink and a different pastry. One of my baristas asked me today, "Don't you think she would drink something better, being that she's a nurse and all?" Well... here she is, no less than a few hours later, sipping down another venti with a piece of cake from the bakery. Like the twelve pumps of artificial sugar water isn't sweet enough... you have to chase it with a chocolate dessert... great.

The Cat Lady: An elderly lady, sitting across the section of "comfy chairs" that i was in. She had white hair, and a face that made a constant frown. She plopped into the chair and whipped out the latest edition of "Kittens U.S.A!" The cover story was "Everything you ever wanted to know about Kittens!" I laughed to myself, and sent my good friend Ashlie a text about it. She shares in the humor of bookstores and CAT things. After a while i glanced up and realized, Oh my, cat lady is asleep! She had positioned herself just so that her magazine stayed upright, as if she was still knee deep in "Over 38 different breeds", but her eyes were shut and i could hear the faintest snore. Amazing.


Oh the joys of a cool summer afternoon. Relaxing with a new book. And planning out your next BLOG in your mind the whole time.