Today at Logos

It was mid October the last time I wrote a Logos entry.  What with all the events surrounding Mike's death, my going to Iowa for 3 weeks and the Thursday after my return being a basket cast and unable to work, then going to Santa Barbara, Christmas Day and New Year's Day (both Thursdays) the store was closed, today was the first time I'd worked in a very long time.  It was nice to be back.  I did work the week before Christmas, but that was the day when I worked 4 hours and had 6 customers and most of the sales were to myself.

But returning to Logos today was like starting to return to normal.  There was Sandy again when I arrived and we chatted, then a friend of hers came in and Sandy introduced me as Bev.  When we started talking about a play I had just seen and I mentioned that the review should be printed today, the woman said "Oh, you're the famous Bev Sykes."  That was a surprise.

So here are the highlights of the day.  A guy who looks like our friend Dick in Santa Barbara looked through the cookbook section and went ecstatic about "Coyote Cafe," which prompted a discussion between us about Chez Panisse.  

He told me he was a connoisseur of good restaurants around the world and I asked him for suggestions.  He said that "anything in Paris is wonderful."  About this time a woman came in and sauntered over to the cookbooks too.  He kind of said in a whisper that of course the best chef in this area was her.  But he didn't tell me the name of her restaurant.  I found out her name was Janet.

He and Janet went their separate ways looking around the store. He came back a couple of times and made allusions to Janet's cooking being the best in the area.  I figured when one of them left I would get her name from the other one.  But they started leaving at the same time and I called him back to ask where her place was.  Turns out she was his wife and he was referring to her home cooking.

It was pretty full most of the afternoon, so I didn't take detailed notes.  A girl who had the look of all the female stars of a certain age in Hollywood today bought a book of poems by Yeats.  A guy who looked like our next door neighbor bout Cannery Row and a history of the Gold rush.

A woman with a limp carried in two big boxes of books to donate. I found out later that she was another volunteer.  At 3, Frank, the window washer, came in to wash the windows, inside and out.  He walked in with many cloths hanging from his tool belt and a squeegee in his hand.  "You must be the window washer," I said,  He feigned surprise and asked if I was psychic.

An androgynous person was checking out literature.  There were abundant curls in a pony tail at his/her neck, several earrings in each ear.  I was trying not to be too obvious about deciding if it was a woman or a man until I looked at his feet....with feet that size he had to be a man (his deep voice when he spoke told me I was right).  He bought a copy of "Walden."

Why do people come into an empty store and whisper at you? Are they afraid I might actually hear them (not bloody likely with the current state of my hearing).  A nice girl approached me tentatively to ask a question and then came back later to say something else as she handed me the books she had chosen (a book by Milton and a book of Dutch verbs).  I never did hear anything she said!

Another old fart came in, bald head, grey beard, wearing all denim.  He browsed for so long I thought he had left, but he finally brought me 2 books on Japanese art and a photo book of nature stuff. I thought of my friend and how if he had come in first, he probably would have purchased the Japanese art books.

A Muslim-looking woman dressed in black, with a hijab on her head had the most shockingly bright chartreuse shoelaces I'd ever seen!

A student, sniveling, with a red nose and earphones in his ears asked if we had used textbooks.  He left when I told him we did not.

A girl in a skin-tight A's jacket bought seven books -- three histories, 2 Shakespeare plays, and two contemporary fiction.  She and her male companion are both teachers.  I was really interested in the book they bought on the development of the Oxford English Dictionary.

A couple sat on the floor with sheet music spread out around them.  She eventually bought about $30 worth of music.  They were not the first grouping to spend time sitting on the floor reading.

My friend came in at 5.  It was good to see him after all these weeks.  After all the confusion of the past 3 months, it's nice to get back to a routine again.