I smiled

A lot of people seemed almost disgusted upon hearing that I - a college graduate - am working retail. This post isn't really about my reasoning behind doing what I do (nor is it about the happy-face-moon-crater pictured above). It's more about some of the things I see while I do what I do. I've seen these three things at work over the past few weeks, and each of them made me smile like a crater... with a beard.

1. I overheard a customer asking a fellow employee which pair of gloves were the warmest. Not an uncommon question this time of year. Then she threw in the part that almost brought a tear to my eye: "We're getting them for our crossing guard." OH MY GOODNESS! I'm pretty sure that's the sweetest thing I've heard a human say or do in months. I wanted to hug that lady and her little kid. Not only are they saving the ozone by walking to school, they're buying their sweet crossing guard the warmest pair of gloves REI has to offer. After fighting off my tears (for the sake of professionalism), I smiled.

2. If we're lucky enough to have to come in at 7:00am to work at a place that doesn't open until 10:00am, we're also lucky enough to see the two people who clean REI every morning. I think it's a father/son duo. The father isn't too big on English, and the son just listens to his music while he vacuums, but he'll talk too. Now, I work upstairs, but the way our store is set up I'm able to see a good portion of the first floor from my section. One day the cleaning didn't quite get finished by 10:00 and I happened to look down and see my friend, the son part of our cleaning team, opening the first of two sets of double doors for this awesome old man who couldn't walk very well (or fast) even with his two canes. After the man got through the first set of doors, music-man hustled in front of him to hold the next door for him. This guy has no close affiliation with REI, he didn't have to even acknowledge the man, but he did, and I smiled.

3. I love when a couple walks up and you can just tell that they are in love with each other, and that their love for each other comes from Jesus. (Sadly, this isn't an event that happens all too often). This guy came and asked me for ski pants the other day. He wanted a good warm pair for his wife. I don't know how you ask a question in such a way that screams, "I love my wife," but this guy knows how, and he did it. After I had been helping him for a very short period of time, his wife walked up, at which point I was helping them, not him. Really I was just helping her the entire time as far as the husband was concerned. Anyway, I was very saddened when I was unable to provide this awesome couple with the particular ski pants they wanted. I mean, I was really sad. I wanted to be friends with these people, and not giving them the pants they want was no way to start a stellar friendship. So they very understandingly walked away, back down the stairs, in love and on their way to a ski trip. I smiled.

book store thoughts

I love bookstores. Half-Priced Books, Barnes and Nobles, Borders, you name it, and I probably like it - unless it's a comic book store. I love that you can go into a book store in any city of America and feel like you've been there before (once you find a book, an empty chair, and start to read).

I've had a few days off from work this week and the past couple days I've found myself riding my bike in the disgustingly hot Dallas weather to the local Barnes where I proverbially swim around in the sea of books. I've got this gift where I'm able to find a book that peaks my interest in nearly every section of the store. I mean it could probably be the child birth section and I'd find something that interests me.

I've done some introspection and discovered where that gift comes from. Well, at least I've gotten one step closer to discovering it's origin. I like to learn. Maybe more so than my liking of learning is my attraction to the idea of knowing a lot of things. That fact is proven in my habit of picking up books that catch my eye, reading the first couple of lines on the back, pretending to read the remainder of the back, then putting the book back on the shelf.

The fact is, I really want all of the knowledge that the books in any given bookstore have to offer, without spending the time or money necessary to acquire said knowledge. That's the problem. And I blame the Internet.

Another thing I love to do at bookstores (and everywhere else I go) is watch people! Especially in the magi zine section. If you ever find yourself with a free afternoon and you just don't know what to do, go to the local Barnes, grab a book and pretend to read it near the magazine section while looking at people and observing to which magazines they are drawn. It is fascinating.

Clearly this post hasn't been profitable or funny, and I doubt it's even been entertaining, but it's what I've been thinking about lately, so it gets blog-space. There is one very funny thing about this post, and if you haven't noticed it already, go ahead and scroll back up and click on that picture. Look at the books on the table at which the boy is sitting. Hilarious.