Today at Logos

Walt, Jeri, and Alice Nan rolled into town a little before lunchtime yesterday morning.  Jeri had flown into So. California on Sunday, Walt had taken the train down to Santa Barbara on Monday and on Wednesday they drove up to Petaluma to see Uncle Norm and wife Olivia. 

Thursday morning they made their way to Davis, in time for Alice Nan to realize one of her goals:  to finally get to see Logos.  She's heard about it forever, but today she got to actually go there.

She found it smaller than she imagined.  She said the bookcases weren't as tall as she thought and the arrangement of the desk to front door was different than in her imagination, but she really liked the place.  Of course.  Who wouldn't?

She and Jeri were my first customers today.

Jeri bought a copy of "Room" to read on the plane going back to Boston and also a copy of "The Color Purple," since she had never read it.  Alice Nan picked up a copy of Ann Patchett's "Bel Canto."

It was a medium day.  The first part of my shift was very slow, but things picked up considerably around 4.  Susan said we made $279 for the day, which is a decent showing,  Probably because of the lovely weather outside.

My next customer was the train guy who once again stopped in to buy something to read on the train.  He bought a bargain book and, as he left, he said see you next quarter" so I guess he won't be around for awhile.

An older woman bought a book from the Lit section and expressed surprise that James Michener was in Lit and not Contemporary Fiction.

A shy looking Asian young man car

rying a gift-wrapped tube came in.  He looked around forever and finally bought a book by Ogden Nash ("I'm a Stranger Here Myself").  When he paid me, he carefully counted out the coins like I do when using foreign currency.

A bearded bald guy dressed all in black.  He was talking on his cell phone when he entered and waved at me.  He chose a book, paid for it, waved and left again and never got off the phone.

A woman was looking for the book "What is Visible" by Kimberly Elkins, which they were reading in her book club.  She knew nothing about the book and I checked it out on Amazon and found it was about a 19th century woman who lost four of her five senses to Scarlet Fever but by age 20 was considered the 19th century's 2nd most famous woman (the review didn't say who was the first!)

Midway through the afternoon, I noted that there  was not a preponderance of green in the store, which was surprising, given that it was St. Patrick's Day.  In fact, it was not until the last half hour that I started seeing green, both in customers wandering around Logos and in people walking outside (presumably to DeVere's Irish pub around the corner)

I had worn the only green shirt I had, which was my President's Day shirt which has the Gettysburg Address printed in the shape of a picture of Lincoln's head.

Eliza came by and just stood outside the door, facing away from me.  Her thing pastel skirt dragged on the ground and she had a blue blanket over her head  From her body language, I wondered if she was breastfeeding her baby.

The book lady of February 19 (I'm now calling her RosaBooks), who bought $52 worth of books last month, telling me she had NO room for new books, today only bought 5 books, two on non-violence, and two on biodiversity as well as a coffee table book on "Images of Nature," with gorgeous photos of scenes in nature.  We again talked about non-profits, GMOs and her other passions.

A thin guy with a belly that made him look pregnant bought a book on Photography and a contemporary fiction.

The "green people" started coming in, starting with a woman with a bright green bag from "Goats on the Roof Market.  She sat on the floor for a long time looking at the travel books and finally bought 3 books in a series by an Egyptian writer.

A woman in a forest green shirt and aqua green backpack, wearing knee high boots looked through the theater section for awhile and then asked if I had books by Michael Pollen ("He writes about food.")  RosaBooks was still there at the time and showed her were Michael Pollen books were. She knew the store books better than I did.

A large man who looked like he might be uncomfortable in book shops came in with a little girl who wanted to know if we had a book on Ann Frank.  She looked to be about Brianna's age and actually looked a little like Ann Frank. I was sorry we didn't have the book.

Walt, Jeri and Alice Nan showed up, having been at the Irish pub for Irish coffee (the girls) and Guinness (Walt).  We came home briefly and then headed off to Elk Grove to have dinner at Marie's restaurant, Todo un Poco again (I had chile rellenos, those being green, you know!).  Marie was able to spend time with us and we shut the place down and as usual came home laden with food she made for us.  Walt and I just glowed watching Marie, Jeri and Ned together.  They lived together for a year when Marie was going to high school and it was like a family reunion.  Marie and Jeri had not seen each other, they decided, in about 17 years.