we are gods!

a trip to the (already normally horrendous) mall on the friday before christmas (a bad idea in itself. in reality, driving/walking/breathing should be avoided a month prior to christmas) is, as i've probably already stated in the massive parenthesis i chose to bombard my sentence with, a HORRIBLE IDEA.


no, really. horrible. if you're reading this, and you're about to brave the determined-mom shuffle, i hope you take my words into consideration and atleast, for your own sake, wear a fully-padded body suit.


possibly the most intriguing part about adventures in the mall at christmastime are the vast array of people who, suddenly, come out of the woodwork and inhabit the mall for those few, brief, pushy hours. my eyes caught everything from your typical do-gooder mom (you know the type. a pair of khakis ironed to perfection, a button-down shirt tucked neatly into the khakis, not a strand of hair out of place, and 20+ bags placed effortlessly balanced on both arms) to the trying-to-look-innocent-for-Christmas stripper (where did she get money for those thigh-highs?). somewhere in between that spectrum came the I-don't-want-to-grow-old mom (botox included free of charge!), the dad that was dragged along and was making every second hell for the party involved, and the grandmother who was completely and totally confounded by the technology that she refused to enter brookstone.


(and then there were a couple of us. the observers... you could make them out in the middle of the crowd. looking down from the 2nd floor at the stripper who was casually flirting with the AT&T guy in the middle of the food court. smiling at the little girl who just plopped down in the middle of the floor and refused to walk anymore, despite her parent's prying.)


somewhere in between all of this i picked up a gift or two. i don't know why people interest me so much... but they do. it's probably mostly because when i look at someone, i'm imagining something more. a life story of dark, dirty, twisty life turns and changes. wedding pictures and kids born out of wedlock...


(i don't understand why any family would want to act like their lives are perfect. why have so much pride in the falsity that your life is boring?)