But I am so lazy, don't want to wander

[austin_dern]

Monday started out much as Sunday had, in the afternoon after sleeping in.

I don't want to make it sound like the biggest thing bunny_hugger and I did was nothing, but it had been since her visit in December/January that I could sleep in as late as possible for more than three days in a row, and back then we had to meet up at some point during the day at her hotel so that there wasn't in practice sleeping in as long as felt right come the morning. As it turned out there would be only two days that didn't include sleeping in as long as both felt like it, and one of them was going back to the airport where there was this pesky schedule from United to distort our day.

The rough plan for today was to set out to a shopping mall, not so much because it had an interesting carousel (it hasn't) but because of the hefty, Borders-class bookstore there. A good bookstore is interesting enough, but in particular this is a store where bunny_hugger works from time to time, particularly around the holidays. She's mentioned me in what do seem to be interesting and flattering ways while working there in the past and was under direction to bring me in should I happen to be in Michigan. I'm fairly sure they didn't think that I was her imaginary Singapore boyfriend, but it is still nice to be able to demonstrate one's own existence when that gets called for.

By one of those unfortunate coincidences of timing, though, while we got to the bookstore on what was to appearances a calm day, the sort that should met me meet everyone, we weren't able to meet some of the critical bookstore staff. People were just off, or unavailable doing the sorts of behind-the-shelves work that we didn't feel comfortable barging in on for trivial matters. Everyone was glad to see her, though (it had been several months since she'd been in) and those we did talk were happy to meet me. I'm fairly sure we came through with agreements that I should come back, which is how I'd prefer to be thought of.

Oddly, perhaps, we spent most of the browsing time we did at the bookstore looking at things that were not books, such as the Folkmanis puppets. She's growing very interested in puppetry, and I've got a mild case of the hobby myself. The various Folkmanis puppets represent an interesting diversity of species sometimes with designs that let one or the other of us actually manipulate its arms and mouth sensibly. We didn't find any must-haves, but then we weren't looking for them either. Besides, who's ever seen a coati puppet they didn't make themselves?

We did step out into the rest of the mall, with the store that we actually bought anything from one of those nearly adjacent to the bookstore: a candy shop. It features a lovely decor of Fifties-Ish Drug Store Counter features, including seats, although we didn't end up using them. We did get some candy --- peanut brittle for me, as I remember it, and caramelized popcorn for her, and we shared, and I tried not to worry about my weight given that I wasn't measuring it daily on the WiiFit or doing my half-to-full-hour work on it. (It would prove out that I didn't need to worry, but I didn't know that at the time.) There's wonderful time to be spent in that sort of privacy that comes from being somewhere public but not excessively busy, eating candies with someone you love, and that's just how we spent it.

The rest of the mall we did wander around, with particular attention paid to looking at cars which were put out on display there which were far more expensive than what I would actually buy less than two weeks later. We also poked into the local version of a Build-A-Bear workshop where the poor woman reading while standing near the cash register seemed eager to explain to us the bear-building concept and would we like to build anything. We didn't have anything specific to build, bear-wise or other-wise, but did look studiously at what would have to be done to build our own teddy generalized animal, including ones with pre-recorded audio put into the microchips inside.

We did some more wandering around and I know we came to a pause by a storefront which was somehow tied to jobseekers, because we ended up distracted by the tunes playing on the mall's audio system. I couldn't say exactly what was playing but we realized that it was the selection of music that gets fit over the closing credits to pretty much any mid-to-late 80s music. You know the songs, the ones that might have had some thematic connection to something which was in the script at some time, but which now were just used to fill that awkward pause while the screen informs us of things like craft services and what people were involved in editing and the last people in the theater decide whether they really mean it in deciding to stick around to the absolute end of the film.

Although there were more things to look at, and certainly more music to ridicule, we had to leave because there was something urgent to be done.

Trivia: In his spacesuit's pocket the morning of 16 July 1969 as Neil Armstrong boarded the transfer van to the Apollo 11 launch vehicle was an old comb and a package of LifeSavers. Source: A Man On The Moon, Andrew Chaikin.

Currently Reading: The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography, Graham Robb.

Comments

[xyzzysqrl]

Ah-ha. This is the first time I've found confirmation mentioned that you two are in fact all lovey-like. I am rather pleased to hear it.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

Wow. Could it actually be possible that we're less obvious about it than I think we are?

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

You've been pretty obvious on the MUCK... the LJ posts a little less obvious.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

We've been worried about being so obvious as to become annoying, actually.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Yeah ... I mean, I know I'm reserved but I didn't realize I was getting that obscure.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'm honestly surprised. I hadn't meant to be so secretive. Thank you, though, thank you.

[spaceroo.livejournal.com]

We also poked into the local version of a Build-A-Bear workshop...

Is it just me, or has this "Build-A-Bear" thing simply gone too far? Sometimes it seems you simply can't go into a gift shop (at least around here) without tripping over a knockoff stuff-your-own-bear mini-boutique.

I do have to admit I'm amused by the stuffing machines that have the little bear up on top perpetually turning a crank and fluffing a vat of bear guts. (http://www.toydirectory.com/monthly/ToyShow/product.asp?product_id=7907&company_id=419) Clive Barker would have a hard time coming up with a more ghoulish image.

I can just see that being the final stage leading to reincarnation after you've passed through the Ten Courts of Hell. After you've received the requisite dose of punishment for your last life's indiscretions your scorched, flattened, mangled and spindled soul is scraped out of the grease trap and lovingly retailored into the shape of fate's choice. Then when the time comes you're nozzled up, pumped full of vital meatiness from the celestial gut machine, and unleashed once more on the mortal coil. Computer voice chip not included.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I suppose I'm just too word-oriented; what really drew me on that page was the explanation that ``the hand crank works like a Monkey organ grinder'', which makes sense as a comparison for everyone living in about 1938 at the latest or who grew up watching cartoons from that era for about a generation after that.

Build A Bear stuff is intruding on the comics, (http://www.gocomics.com/imaginethis/2009/07/17/) though, at least the obscure ones I think might be web-only.