There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep.
My parents, Brad and I are getting a bite to eat at a diner. We sit at counter. My mom orders enough breakfast to feed all of us, then orders three more bagels and some toast.
Looking over the menu while I drink my milk I recall the new Nestlé Quick commercials for their new drinks – six or seven flavored fountain sodas. These are available only at local diners to encourage local business growth in this economy. Exciting! They have them here. I order a pink fizzy one, the one branded with Princess Barbie. It’s funny how they encourage gender stereotypes with beverages these days.
As my mom orders another bagel to go with her heaping pile of eggs I decide that it’s grossing me out and decide to go outside and call Alissa. She’s visiting her parents too. I get to the front room of the diner, where they have a bar and music and walk through the small crowd. People are cryptically asking me if I have something, maybe they mean drugs or tickets.
I walk out onto the street where there are more people hanging around, asking the same weird questions. Frickin’ people these days. Apparently there is a sold–out show at the arena down the block.
Suddenly there’s a loud noise down the street and someone shouts, “We’ve got it!”
I run down the street with a bunch of others, the street starts to go downhill. It’s chaos. A bunch of would–be concert goers have intercepted a beer delivery truck and started to unload kegs and six–packs from the back. Swarms of concert goers starting fires and punching cops.
I run back up the hill toward the diner, hoping to hide in obscurity, Brad and my parents safe from the insanity they wouldn’t understand. I force through a crowd at the door. The front room is packed now, all spill–over from the concert. People still asking for drugs and tickets. Getting riled.
I walk into the diner section, my parents and Brad still chowing away. My pink fizzy has come. I pick it up and walk to the side of the counter whereI ask one of the cooks if there is a rear exit my parents can take. They’re handicapped and the front is too packed. I’m going to… hey this drink is pretty good… drive around back. Maybe it’s easier to get them out the front because their handicapped spot is right there but there are too many people and they wouldn’t really understand that they are literally surrounded with rioting druggies who want tickets or whatever else they can get their hands on.
posted May 31st, 2009 @ 11:56 amI must have fallen asleep. I open my eyes and see the ocean going by the left side of the bus. We arrive at the Burlington Mall… All those times we drove there and the bus would have brought us there if we just stayed on it. I call Alissa to let her know I am here. She’s tired and says she’ll pick me up but her idea of a good night is getting a six-pack and going to the movies. I’m broke but I guess I’m fine with it. While we talk I walk around the Mall. Lots of restaurants on the 9th floor.
She’s on her way. We hang up.
I walk into this home decor store, must be Pottery Barn, and I see this glass container that would make a cool instrument if I just flipped it over. The clerk sees me farting around with it and gives me his opinion on other items that would be fun to carry around - that is they make a cool sound but are much more portable than this glass jar.
Now there are two girls here picking up various things and trying to play them. They’ve got a wicker shelf with 9 drawers; it that makes a nice sound I suppose. Amongst them is this shallow square box with wooden sides and the top and bottom covered in red canvas. On one end, under the fabric, are keys. I do my little autonomous rattle of the fingers that lets out this pleasant organ squelch. I can see how this would have a lot of bang for the buck.
I flip it around, not too much that I invoke a sales pitch. It’s got no apparent power source. I think it draws the power from air pulling through the fabric. I’ll take one but I should be going to meet my friend.
I go to meet Alissa. The one end of the mall is a big ship and I’m among other commuters as we cross a bit of ocean. There are pillows all around the bases of these huge windows and people are seated amongst them, some drinking white wine, reading magazines, relaxing, in a sort of tense looking suspicious way. There’s a lot of spray from the stormy waves but the boat doesn’t rock. We get there soon enough.
I get there and meet up with Alissa, Chris also happens to be here. We head into the mall. We go in to find that there’s a big space that’s like the outside in that there is grass on the ground but the glass walls we passed on the way in and the roof high over our head gives it away. We walk through another door and we’re in a glass hallway that is quite narrow. This angles around and through another door we get into the mall.
It’s a lot nicer than the Burlington Mall. There are quite a few stores placed up or down flights of stairs. There’s quite a few mall employees in character costumes - one happens to be dressed as Gomez Adams.
We walk around a few times before we move on.
I decide to go out for a smoke and make my way through the crowd in the winding hall and back outside. Oh right, it’s not outside and you can’t smoke here. There’s a funny sign that says, “Got your cigarette and lighter? You’re in the wrong place!” I laugh and move on through the doors to the real outside. It turns out that there is much more to this place that I had thought. Chris and Alissa meet up with me and we start to walk around. There’s a big food court area along the outer edge of the mall, we move on and somehow get incorporated back inside with the crowds who are thinning out a bit.
We walk by a nice windowed area overlooking the ocean. Then the walls shoot up and there’s an interactive shrine that’s basically a big touch screen, there are some little kiosks around playing various bits about some unheard of religion. Its amazing what passes for interactive. Standing around a kiosk that spits out the same thing time and time again, thats interactive?
We keep walking, I utter a holy shit under my breath as the wall goes back into the floor to reveal glass overlooking the ocean again. But that’s not it. On the left there’s a giant candy ribbon shaped wall that is at a slight tilt, one that people are climbing to get upstairs. It’s got to be 100ft.
HEELLL NO. I’ll keep walking till I find an elevator.
We do. It’s getting a bit weird now - the wall gives way to open air and we’re outside the mall. Though if you look back it’s clearly visible the top parts that are up a hill a bit more look like your average giant barn amongst its neighbors. A quiet neighborhood. There’s a part of the water that has even been filled in so that you’re really walking on one inch of water but it looks like you could be Jesus. We head back around the curve of the building.
I guess we’re looking for a gift. It’s apparent that one of those cool musical home items I was playing with would be good. We head into Macy’s or something.
It’s crazy because this mall has anything imaginable here - there’s even a Petsmart somewhere as I keep seeing bags for it.
We head in. It’s all room displays that we keep walking through just to find another room display. We walk around the fake bed and find another fake bed surrounded by other matching items. This goes on but we can’t seem to find anything like that Pottery Barn stuff. It keeps getting deceptively more and more similar so we keep going but once I think it’s going to be just around the corner we find some tacky plastic storage thing instead of our much desired wicker.
posted Jul 1st, 2008 @ 10:23 amMike and I decide to go to London. We did something - I can’t remember what… a party maybe. We leave to go home and I explain to the ticket person at the airport that I have no passport. The ticket clerk indicates that he’ll let me go home anyway. Mike then subtly encourages me to take him up on the offer.
“I have no passport,” I repeat. “I’ll be stuck in the US airport if I go, which is a lot worse than being stuck in London.”
We decide to walk back to the states. Mike isn’t here, Kyle and Kevin make the trek. We walk on this path that is well worn. Many others are here too, walking this wide path in a forest. The route starts to curve around and appears to be in disrepair. We aren’t sure what the route to take; one rises up and over another pathway.
We choose to climb up and cross over the rise. After about 20 feet we notice it’s a tropical jungle, more dense and wild than before. I walk over a rock and Kyle points out it’s a tyrannosaurus skull. Cool. We walk a little further and peer down. There are ten or so giraffes in a pit digging furiously, possessed. There are other giraffes too that we hope do not notice us. We decide this is the wrong path. I walk on the tyrannosaurus skull again for good luck.
posted Apr 9th, 2008 @ 11:09 pmI’m trying to convince my parents to put their stove in the center of the kitchen.
“It’s how it was done long ago,” I said. “When people got together in the center of the room and cooked together.”
posted @ 11:07 pm