onward to the mall
Oh
My
God!
The youngster and I finally made that trip to the mall, so we could get the Christmas present from him for the wife. We went during the day, because I figured the crowd wouldn't be quite as bad as it would in the evening or, God forbid, the weekend....and it wasn't as bad as the stroies I'd heard. We found a parking spot, in the actual mall parking lot, and not three miles away in the grass somewhere. The spot was even fairly close to the actual building. The crowd wasn't all that bad, but it wasn't the crowd that shocked me.
Those kiosk things...the stuff in the middle of the mall, not housed by an actual store. The fly-by-night shit that will disappear three days after Christmas, if it lasts that long...that was the culture shock thing for me. The only thing I can equate it to is the casbah in Tangiers...the shopping area where everyone knew me as Joe. "Hey Joe, come look." "For you Joe, ten dollars...wait..wait...don't go...seven dollars." "Special deal for you Joe, because we long time friends." and yes, even the ever popular "Hey Joe, come see, come see my sister. She virgin. Ten dollar. She love you long time." I've never been accosted like that in an American shopping place. I guess that's how pole dancers at the strip club the night the fleet pulls in....like everyone even close to arms length is groping at you. You so much as look sideways at the Winnie the Pooh phone cover and three people are telling you how much it is and when you say you really aren't interested, instead of laying off, they're showing you five others you might like better. While they're doing that, this woman with a latin accent grabs my thumb and starts polishing the nail with some stone thing, showing me after 2 minutes how much better it looks than the other, and trying to sell me the stone. While, admittedly, the nail she worked on looked shinier, what do I need with shiny nails? I can see my buddies when we play golf saying, "Oh wow John, such shiny nails! How did you do that?" NOT!
We got what we needed and..well, the best word I can use is...escaped.
On a completely different note...Potter fans...Ms. Rowling has apparently named her 7th and final book in the Harry Potter saga, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Now there's a cheery title for you. Doesn't exactly conjure up a vision of right, triumphantly kicking the crap out of evil, does it? Supposedly 2 more characters die than she originally intended, which only begs the question, how many did she originally intend?
My
God!
The youngster and I finally made that trip to the mall, so we could get the Christmas present from him for the wife. We went during the day, because I figured the crowd wouldn't be quite as bad as it would in the evening or, God forbid, the weekend....and it wasn't as bad as the stroies I'd heard. We found a parking spot, in the actual mall parking lot, and not three miles away in the grass somewhere. The spot was even fairly close to the actual building. The crowd wasn't all that bad, but it wasn't the crowd that shocked me.
Those kiosk things...the stuff in the middle of the mall, not housed by an actual store. The fly-by-night shit that will disappear three days after Christmas, if it lasts that long...that was the culture shock thing for me. The only thing I can equate it to is the casbah in Tangiers...the shopping area where everyone knew me as Joe. "Hey Joe, come look." "For you Joe, ten dollars...wait..wait...don't go...seven dollars." "Special deal for you Joe, because we long time friends." and yes, even the ever popular "Hey Joe, come see, come see my sister. She virgin. Ten dollar. She love you long time." I've never been accosted like that in an American shopping place. I guess that's how pole dancers at the strip club the night the fleet pulls in....like everyone even close to arms length is groping at you. You so much as look sideways at the Winnie the Pooh phone cover and three people are telling you how much it is and when you say you really aren't interested, instead of laying off, they're showing you five others you might like better. While they're doing that, this woman with a latin accent grabs my thumb and starts polishing the nail with some stone thing, showing me after 2 minutes how much better it looks than the other, and trying to sell me the stone. While, admittedly, the nail she worked on looked shinier, what do I need with shiny nails? I can see my buddies when we play golf saying, "Oh wow John, such shiny nails! How did you do that?" NOT!
We got what we needed and..well, the best word I can use is...escaped.
On a completely different note...Potter fans...Ms. Rowling has apparently named her 7th and final book in the Harry Potter saga, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Now there's a cheery title for you. Doesn't exactly conjure up a vision of right, triumphantly kicking the crap out of evil, does it? Supposedly 2 more characters die than she originally intended, which only begs the question, how many did she originally intend?
John put this out here at 11:47 AM
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