at the bookstore

Doing what I do best: eavesdropping.

At the table next to me are two young women. One woman is dressed in all black: jeans, sweater, spiky boots. The other woman is dressed in apathy: mom jeans, sweatshirt, sneakers.

I listen to their conversation and really start to dislike one of them.

“So I bought a petticoat.”

“A what?”

“You know, a coat.”

“Uh, well, that’s a skirt.”

“Oh. Yeah. I mean a pea coat.”

“Well, you have no IDEA how cold you’ll be.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“No. You don’t know.”

“I think I’ll be fine.”

“I keep seeing you fight for the right to dress inappropriately.”

“I’ll be fine.

Later …..

“You’re wearing Skechers with a skirt? I didn’t know you could wear Skechers with a skirt.”

And later …..

“Okay. So about you. Somehow you’re making that unemployment thing work — which I don’t get — but tell me about that.”

Oh, I swear, I could feel that old familiar itch in my smackin’ hand. I could visualize my lily white fist connecting with her smug little face: “Hey, hi, Betty! Guess what? Kapow! KAPOW!”

KAPOWW!

4 Replies to “at the bookstore”

  1. The majority of kids at my daughter’s gymnastics class come from upper-middle-class families. Most of the moms there (I am one of the three or four dads who regularly take their kids in) are obviously from a snotty, nose-looking-down place. My daughter’s almost on team which means many a trip to competitions.

    These moms are talking about making the trips and staying in Hiltons and the like. I’m hoping I can afford gas. And I could forgive that, I mean, if you have the money, stay in a freaking nice hotel, right? But the way they say it.

    A recent example – my girl has four or five different leotards to wear for gymnastics. She has a favorite, of course, and likes to wear that one as often as she can. The other day a girl says to her, “Didn’t you wear that last week?” WTF Chuck? Fortunately she blew it off like – “Yeah, I want to wear it.” But that could have gone very poorly, you know?

    But yeah, I hear ya.

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