Today at Logos

"They're baack!" read the message from Susan tonight, indicating that we had a very good day at Logos.  Both Sandy and I had busy shifts and brought in >$100 than we did last week.  Don't know if it's a one time thing or if we are in for a run of busy days, but it was nice anyway.

My first customer was an African American woman who bought a book on trains and a book on planes.  I only mention her ethnicity because she was wearing dark brown gloves and it took me by surprise to see how much darker her hand skin was than the rest of her body until I realized they were gloves.

Three generations of women came in and looked around for awhile and finally the middle generation bought a book called "The Working Parent."

A worker type in rumpled work clothes came in, yawning as he looked around.  He finally bought a Star Wars book which shoes all the stuff inside the starships.

A woman came in looking for comics, but looked around the store anyway after I told her we didn't sell them.  She left precipitously when she got a phone call.

I noticed a couple outside, eating ice cream cones and very interested in the books in the window, but they never came in.

A man wearing an Ivy League Blood Donor shirt came in looking for a book by James Baldwin.  He asked me if we donated to charity and when I said yes he said he had a box of clothes in the car and did I want them.  I sent him off to the SPCA thrift store.

Things were pretty slow until the 4 p.m. rush.  I had decided not to finish the book I started last week, "In the Unlikely Event" by Judy Blume.  It just was not holding my interest and  1/3 of the way into the book I realized I didn't care about any of the characters.  Judy Blume is a great author of children's books, but this is the second of her books for adults that I have not liked.

At around 4, three men came in separately, a tall blonde man in a white shirt and jeans, an Indian (from India) with an untucked blue shirt and an orange backpack, wearing earphones, and a tall man all in grey -- shirt, pants and backpack.  All left without buying anything.

A thin nerdy-looking woman entered wearing dark grey everything except the dark maroon sweater tied around her waist.  She had straggly blonde hair in a messy bun and black glasses and she kept her arms tightly crossed across her chest, even when she asked me if we only had used books.  When I told her we did, she left.

A mom and dad and teen aged daughter came in.  The mom wore a Stanford shirt (but I was polite).  Dad was in tan shorts and an olive-colored shirt.  The daughter had an attractive blue shirt with a jeweled sunburst on it.  She bought a Greek phrase book, a Harry Potter and a kids' book.

My friend arrived at 4:15 (he has not been in the past 2 weeks).  He bought "Gulliver's Travels."

A man in a weird aloha shirt came in but didn't buy anything.  He was followed by an Asian girl in a black sweater with white cats on it (and one red...but she took the sweater off and I didn't see why the one cat was red).  She was also carrying a box of food.  She bought "Beowulf" and a contemporary fiction book.

An older man came in and was angry because when he was there the day before he accidentally left his copy of the Sunday edition of the San Francisco Chronicle on the front table and it was gone today.  I searched for it in the garbage, but the garbage can had been emptied.  He looked under the table. He acted almost like it was Susan and Peter's fault for deliberately throwing away his Sunday newspaper on Wednesday evening!

An older woman was looking for books on organic gardening. She said she had a plot of land in a community garden in Sacramento.  She was quite striking in that she was wearing an emerald green satin-ish coat over a fairly plain housedress type dress.  Her hair was Maureen O'Hara-red.  She didn't find the book she wanted but wanted a copy of the Farmer's Almanac so I sent her to the Avid Reader to get one. 

Another woman bought a bargain book about Christopher Reeve.

A guy came in wearing a pink and grey shirt and carrying a bag from Watermelon Music.  He ended up buying $65 worth of books -- four on local (California) history, 1 on the history of the Incas, and 2 art books one of which was a book of African animals that I so enjoyed looking through last week.

The next guy had long dark hair, below his shoulders and halfway down his back, with about the bottom 6" dyed light blonde with a hint of pink.  He wore a patchwork vest and an Animal Planet T-shirt.  He carried a bag that said "Hungry for Better" on it and his boots were a pinkish-red.  But alas, he did not buy anything.

A pleasant man with a goatee and face that crinkled when he smiled bought 2 contemporary fiction books, 2 books on food by Michael Palan and a book called "Never Drink."

Parents came in with two daughters.  At first I didn't realize they were all together.  The older (I think) daughter wore short distressed denim shorts, the ones that have trendy holes in them.  She also had a flowing flowery top that looked quite lovely.  She has long hair in a braid to the side of her head.  Her sister also had jean shorts, but regular and a nondescript grey t-shirt.  Her braid went down the center of her back.  She was much plainer than her sister.

Dad was wearing white shorts, a mistake because they were so full of "stuff" that all you could see were the bulges in his pockets.  Mom looked like a less attractive Bellamy Young (from Scandal).   She bought 2 bargain books.

A guy knocked over books on top of a bookshelf and while he and I were picking them up, 2 more customers came in.

A woman came in with a cup of yogurt.  She was thrilled to find the store but said she had just started a book and would definitely come back when she finished the book (like that is an excuse not to buy 6 more??)

At 5:55, Peter arrived to relieve me, the neighborhood joggers ran by the front of the store, and Walt came in. He forgot to bring my cane (it broke as I was getting out of the car), so he went and got the car and picked me up.  I could walk that far without a cane, but I feel awkward about my balance walking in the crowds on the street.

Anyway, I came home to find requests to exchange pocket letters, so I'm all stoked now about designing them!