One Saturday proved to me once again that it really is the little adventures in life that give you the best stories to tell. Strangers can be so interesting and dynamic—it is fascinating how when you take a moment to learn something about someone else that you seem to have a whole new world opened up to you. This sort of reminds me of the idea behind each person having a universe within them.

One Saturday morning, I went to Borders Express while I was waiting for my car to be serviced at Goodyear. The people at Goodyear said it would be at least an hour before they could get to my car (indicator light was on and I needed an oil change and more air in my tires), so I needed to kill some time.

A creepy “not completely put together” lady convinced me the mall was my best option.

I was wearing my weekend attire, which consisted of a grungy Transformer’s t-shirt (that I won from the midnight showing of Transformers!), khaki pants, and my Capricorn symbol purse (a cute goat sewn on a black and white bag–$10 from Gottschalks from about 8 years ago… and it looks like it was bought that long ago). I was not dressed for the mall, but it was either visit the mall or sit and read a book in a waiting area for over an hour. That thought however brought back an awkward memory…

Last time I was in the waiting area at the car service place, several people arrived and left who turned the waiting area into a “can’t wait to leave” area. The creepiest among them was an old woman wearing a dirty cowgirl outfit (I am being literal) and her chest was completely hanging out with everything on display. She was the classic image of “not completely put together,” with a cigarette in one hand and a McDonald’s coffee cup in the other, it was next to impossible not to notice her walk in. She was really loud and spoke with a deep voice that sounded like she had been smoking all her life. I do not remember what she came to the car repair shop for—I just remember before she left she walked out with a DVD from the waiting area. Perhaps this now explains my preference for walking over to the mall…

I went to a few places and actually found a great wig shop if I ever decide to dress up as an anime girl for Halloween (and if I am willing to spend about $100 for the wig I wanted). I stopped by GameStop as well to see what I am missing by not having a PS3 yet (oh how behind the times I have become—my technological faux pas for not buying one yet). But what really stuck out was my experience at Borders Express.

An unexpected encounter with a half-naked man

At the front entrance to Borders Express, there was a hefty collection of books, all for $1, ranging from self-help to Sci-Fi and Fantasy. I perused the incredibly inexpensive front display books when my eyes happened upon a book spine entitled The Cat. Of course, being a cat enthusiast, I picked it up the book and turned it over to look at the front cover. I became overwhelmed with shock when I beheld a man’s bare, shaved chest and a silhouette of a cat in the background (to clarify, this is what I saw on the book cover. A strange half-naked man with a shadow cat did not walk up to the book store at that moment, which would have been ironic given my previous tale at the car shop, but alas, I digress).

I could not help twitching my eye at the complete confusion based on my expectation of see something related to a pet and then seeing a cropped image of a man’s chest… there was not even a face, just a chest with a cat shadow in the background (perhaps a cat face as a surprise later in the book?). This was like one of those moments when you are preparing your mouth to drink soda and instead are surprised when you drink water, which confuses the taste buds and somehow makes the water taste gross—it was that type of feeling not seeing what I expected.

A lady in her 50’s was at that moment walking toward the store entrance. She had short hair and glasses, seemed friendly, and was clearly about to enter the book store. Bursting with amusement at the title and choice of cover, I had to share with somebody, and she was a victim of timing. I raised my hand to wave at her and get her attention.

“Excuse me. I’m sorry, but I have to share this with someone. Isn’t this the most interesting choice for a cover based on the title The Cat?” I showed her the book.

The lady looked at the book cover and chuckled a little. We joked together about the possible things the book could be about. I said, “Maybe he turns into a cat.” The lady was not too sure herself how the story would involve a cat.

I then conjectured, “Perhaps the man saves the cat and the cat gives him a new purpose to fight for life or something?” She humored me on that one, but honestly, I think that was as farfetched as the title paired with the cover.

The lady made an interesting observation though when she stated, “Well it definitely caught our attention.” She was right about that. I was almost ready to buy the book since it was on the $1 rack, but I was afraid what the man I love would think when he sees a bare-breasted man on a book cover that I am reading called The Cat. While I do very much enjoy the romantic fantasy genre, I decided to pass for the time being (maybe I could get a stealthy book cover for it and go back and get it?). If anyone is interested, there was more than one copy available for $1.

The book store seemed like one of those book stores that have a lot of devoted patrons. There is no place to sit (unless the floor counts) and about the only food or drink there were some Twilight-themed chocolate bars. In spite of the lack of a “hangout” feel to the place, I can see a few major reasons why others including myself would likely tend to haunt this place frequently—great deals ($1 books) and the most friendly down-to-earth patrons and service you could expect.

GRE and the Princess Protection Program… it was a small space.

I sauntered over to the reference section where the books on GRE prep and world languages resided (ahh… the never-ending to-do list of ambitious goals pounding through my brain). There was an impressive children’s books section nearby (although everything was nearby—it was a small store) with a bunch of Disney books on display for the Jonas Brothers and the Princess Protection Program (I read the synopsis of the PPP out of sheer curiosity). The PPP sounds like a very kid-oriented storyline, but it was an interesting idea for a storyline—an agency devoted to protecting princesses (with fewer knights around nowadays, it might just make sense… on the Disney Channel).

While sneakily scoping out the children’s books, I overheard a peculiar individual asking about a book for learning computers. He was a middle- aged man, probably around 50. I overheard him excited about having his first-ever laptop (or computer for that matter) and being gung-ho to join the technology age and learn everything there was to know. The nice lady with whom I earlier shared The Cat book encounter approached him and recommended the Dummies series, citing that she still uses hers to this day as a reference. It was interesting to hear someone just starting to use a computer, but I felt inward kudos to him that he was trying to keep up with technology, since I am a fiend for technology myself.

I was about to leave, right when something funny happens…

Moseying toward the exit with the decision not to purchase anything for the moment, I overheard the middle-aged man being energetic again about something, so I decided to play on my iTouch while being a nosy rat and enjoying the moment. He was at the checkout and ended up getting PCs for Dummies since it was on sale. I had a great time overhearing his transaction:

Attendant: “Are you a Borders member?”
Customer: “Yes, but I don’t have my card.”
Attendant: “Do you have a phone number?”
Customer: “I changed it.”
Attendant: “What’s the old one?”
Customer: “I don’t remember.”
Attendant: “Do you have an email?”
Customer: “I don’t have one yet.”
Attendant: When did you open your Borders account?”
Customer: “A few months ago.”

Wow! I was so endeared to the man in this moment—he was trying so hard to get everything together and to learn. It really is these types of moments that I love humanity for all of their quirks. The attendant was very polite and professional throughout the transaction—there might be some people who would respond impatiently or sarcastically to a man with those types of responses, but both customer and attendant were such friendly individuals, it was a cute moment.

The chance encounter thanks to the confusing tweets on Twitter

After finishing his purchase, the man walked by me on his way out. I was about to tweet about the hilarity of the moment when he stopped in front of me as though chivalrously  letting me pass (again, it was a small store. He might have thought I wanted to pass even though I was standing still playing on my iTouch).

I told him “Oh thanks, but you can go ahead. I’m just tweeting.” It suddenly dawned on me this is the one person I should have known would not know to what I was referring to when I mentioned tweeting.

Having awoken his curiosity for trends and technology, the man began to ask me about tweeting and Twitter. He was still new to the idea of what a social network was, but he was trying to learn. He began talking to me about how he is so new technology and just got a laptop and all of the exciting things he was learning from the internet.

The man was so thrilled about seeing images of arctic weather from his computer. It made me realize how much I enjoy looking at amazing pictures online as well that normally it would be hard to see any other way. I commended him for already being able to surf the web after just getting a laptop (I should have asked if it was PC or Mac, but in retrospect, I don’t think that would have been nice of me since he might not have known the difference when responding).

He told me he bikes to help the environment and I wondered how he would get home with his JCPenny and other bags that included heavy books in tow. I told him I had a Prius to help as well and he said his mother’s stepbrother drives one (or someone of a similarly distant relation). He said if I see someone in a black shiny outfit riding a bike, that’s him. I told him I would wave hello.

A tale of different foxes

I then went to ask the clerk Patti about the store address (so that I might share it on my blog). There were two ladies in line who I earlier saw perusing the $1 book boxes (really a great deal). They were buying a bunch of the discount books. The total came to about $8 for the whole purchase and they were thrilled when they heard the total (I would be too). I started a conversation with them about the great deal they got on the books and it transformed into a conversation about the history of the mall and the changes that have taken place (for example, the Borders Express used to be a Walden Books, which was bought out by Borders and converted).

The two women shared stories with me about how the younger of the two used to walk over from Junior High School to see the construction progress of the new mall that was being built at the time (now a Westfield mall). That was back when it was called Fox Hills. I asked if that had anything to do with the entertainment corporation Fox, but the ladies emphatically said no, it actually had lots of foxes and so was named after all of the foxes back when there were actually hills.

It would be nice to see Fox Hills in its untainted wilderness years, but I suppose in order to bring the rest of the world to a modern, technological age, it just makes sense to build where there are people. It was an interesting day indeed to find out so much about Los Angeles and so much about the people living in L.A.