In Borders and Shiny Nails

Good evening everyone,

Being that I could not think of anything to post for a while, no witty observations, no 'happy moments' of scientific discovery, and no other real things that would make an interesting post; I thought I would give a rundown of today's events.

After attending the Friends of the Library Book Sale, I am in need of some book-ends. And not just those metal wedges- real big gaudy pretentious things. So, I went to Borders. Of course you would think a bookstore would have such a device, but alas, they did not. In fact, they have become quite a challenge to find. Since they did not have what I was looking for, I decided to wander around a bit. I looked at C++ books, books on electricity and electric circuits, books on math and anything else that caught my nerdy eye. Nothing that is going to assist me with school however, indeed I fear that my browsing those particular types of books was to remove some kind of guilt that I may have had in not doing some amount of homework.

I then made my way down to the fiction section where I overheard this conversation between a mother, daughter and son; all in another isle and invisible to me:

Son:" what was her name mom?"

Mom:" who?"

Son: " his girlfriend.. "

Mom: "you are talking to loud; keep your voice down."

Daughter: "ugghhh…"

Son: "what was her name?"

Mom: "you are talking too loud. You are embarrassing me."

Daughter: "yeah, everyone!"

Mom: "Keep your voices down!"

Son: "but what was her name?"

And it went on in that circular manner until I could handle no more, and left to go to the Mall. I always liked wandering the Mall when I was a kid. I was a bit of a Mall Rat. My friends parents would always ask why we were going there, what point there was in it, and how it was just a waste of our time. I would counter that by saying that it was not a waste of time, but when one wanders the Mall, we are out of the house, we are keeping in touch with culture and current events, expanding our social horizons, and getting some much needed exercise. Especially us heathens there shopping on Sunday- a small sanctuary of superficiality and decadence. Except this time I went with a purpose. Here was my shopping list (and budget):

~Sunglasses: $20

~Boots: $100 (good boots are expensive)

On my way to procure these items, I noticed there has been one thing that has popped up more and more since I used to frequent Malls, and that is the kiosk. Not just a kiosk, bit populated with high pressure sales people. I passed one, and the girl slightly approached me and said:

"excuse me, could I talk to you for a moment?"

To which I replied:

"No."

And went on my merry way. When I looked back at her, I noticed she had a little disappointed sigh, and I felt a little bad. So I decided to myself that I would not be as rude to the next sales associate who approached me… aaaand that was a bad decision.

I was approached by a girl with an accent who looked younger from farther away. She started showing me some fingernail care products that she was selling. She took my hand and began sanding away on my finger while she was talking about how this 'cube' uses silk available from only Israel, and until now we could not use it to unlock the hidden oils in our finger nails, and she went on and on like that for quite some time. then she showed me my finger nail- I looked down with surprise; it was indeed quite shiny!

Then she tried to sell that crap to me, it was about $60, and I was forced to be even ruder than before to get out of there. Nothing eventful happened in getting the items I was originally after. So here is what I ended up with (and what it cost):

~Sunglasses: $10.

~ Boots: $40 (sale… I blame/thank the economy)

~Sad look from sales girl: $A small piece of my soul.

~Shiny finger nail: $A small piece of my self respect.

And there you have it. A long dragging post essentially about nothing, and what I actually spent my time doing: getting an absurdly shiny fingernail.

T