Today at Logos

First the good news.  I had a wonderful lunch at Atria today.  My mother wasn't in her apartment when I got there, so I went to look for her at the dining room and imagine my surprise to find her in one of those conversation corners talking with her friend Loretta.  The three of us went to lunch together.  Loretta is just the perfect friend for my mother.  They are both at about the same stage of their dementia, and both have deteriorated in the 2 years my mother has been there.  They don't have a clue what each other's name is and couldn't make arrangements to meet anywhere if their lives depended on it, but they have the same kind of caustic sense of humor and I love sitting there and watching the two of them insulting each other (and me) and giggling like school girls. If I were to mention Loretta to her tomorrow, she wouldn't have a clue who I was talking about, but when their paths cross they remember that they are friends and they enjoy their time together.

It was a fairly busy day at Logos today.  Sandy was upset because she'd had her first SNAFU with our new credit card machine and overcharged a customer, but she figured out how to fix it, and Susan told her she'd done the right thing.

The first customer who walked in after I took over could have been me if I wore an electric purple sleeveless tank top and dyed my hair red.  She was with a friend, who bought a book of crab recipes (I told her about our anniversary party)  The purple lady bought 2 Philippa Gregory books.

Next came a guy who was probably Italian, looking for old magazines.  I told him we didn't have any and he was disappointed that I could only direct him to places that sold new magazines, because he wanted old ones.

Another guy came in wearing long shorts (maybe Bermuda shorts) and a shocking  orange T shirt with the AmGen bike race logo on it.  The back of it said "Volunteer."  He had a baseball cap and a short pony tail, dirty white trainers and socks without elastic at the top, so they slid down and bunched up around his ankles.  We talked about how pleasant the weather was today.  He didn't buy anything, but he waved as he left.

Jim, the guy who was an old Lawsuit fan, came in with his daughters and a box of books to donate.  The girls each picked out a book and either one of them left hers behind, or she got a different book.  I set the book aside with his name on it.

A guy bought a book on Existentialism and the card reader at first didn't want to read the chip in his credit card.  I must remember to ask Susan if there is a way to enter the card number manually in cases like this.  I finally got it to work, though.

A woman bought a Jodi Picoult book but two students looking for "Flowers for Algernon" (they told me, after consulting their phones), didn't find it and left without making a purchase.

A couple, both wearing shorts (hers very short denim with unraveled edges) hunkered down to check the notice board in front, then they wandered around and eventually she bought 2 art books and a Literature book.

Two women were outside at the bargain table squealing with delight over what they were finding for only $1 each.  They eventually bought "Eat, Pray, Love" and one other book and left very happy campers.

The credit card machine ran out of paper mid-transaction and it took a few minutes to remember how to change the roll.  The cash register was also nearly out of paper, but it lasted till the end of my shift.

I spied two bald men standing at the table at the front of the store, with their backs to me. One was wearing a nicely pressed white dress shirt and black pants and had a bag slung over his arm.  I expected them to break into songs from Book of Mormon, but then as I watched their body language, my gaydar tingled and I began to suspect they were a couple.  When one came up to buy a book of poetry, my gaydar was proven right again.

A tall man dressed all in black, with a full short black beard and bushy black hair was looking at Sci Fi books and when he turned toward me I could see that his shirt said "May the mass times acceleration be with you."  I thought it was clever.  He bought "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

My friend showed up at 4:30 and asked me how our trip to Santa Barbara had gone.  He bought a very heavy book on Architecture.  We decided that at $7. the per pound price was pretty good but he did buy a bag to take it with him because it was so heavy.

A guy working for the company that owns the building came in and asked if he could measure it.  He took a long time and I think went into every nook and cranny, but did get his measurements, I guess.  He said he was measuring all of the realtor's buildings for something about insurance.

An interesting couple came in, he wearing a green "Beer City" (Minnesota) t-shirt and she in bright chartreuse / yellow shorts.  They were very colorful.

A kind of obnoxious guy in a Black Bear Diner cap settled himself in to chat, which was awkward because the store was full at that time.  Also he was talking with me about books he had read about people's travels and I couldn't understand much of what he said.  He was thrilled, though to find a book about Frank Lloyd Wright that he had been looking for.  He finally left and then returned to buy a book of speeches.

A woman with a very unique looking patchwork skirt in tans and reds with a matching red scarf came in.  I was going to compliment her on her outfit but she left without buying anything.

One of the gay guys came back.  He said they had planned to go to Sacramento to dinner, but took a look at the traffic and decided not to so he came back to browse some more.  He bought a book called "Gymnastics and Tumbling."

My last customer before Susan arrived was a woman who was probably a vet med tech because she was wearing scrubs in a penguin pattern and had her hair in a tight bun which looked like it had been through a strenuous day of work.  She looked through sci fi for awhile but didn't buy anything.

Susan finally arrived and by the time I'd finished giving her a work report and telling her about our anniversary and the trip to Santa Barbara, Walt was there and we headed home, in time for Jeopardy.