an unappreciated patron

I went to Borders today, partly for Christmas . . . and partly for myself. I was having trouble finding a particular title, and after looking for it in the specified shelves without success, I asked an employee for help. Yeah, I get that retail during the holidays must be hellish, but does it really justify the response I got?

Me: "I'm having trouble finding _______ [please excuse the censorship—it is Christmas]. Do you know where I could find it?"

Obviously disgruntled employee: "Well, you have to look by the author's last name, not by the title."

Me in my head: "Did you really just say that to me? I'm a longstanding patron of this establishment and given the fact that I'm 22 and a college senior, I do, in fact, know how to navigate a bookstore. Thanks. Thanks for nothing."

I found the book on my own.

Spoooooky . . . or Not

Apparently every year on the Friday before Halloween, the Provo Library holds a scary storytelling up in the attic of the building. The building was renovated a while ago, and the attic was the only part never touched by the remodel. So a scary storytelling up in the attic would be a fun Halloween activity, no?

No, it's not.

I'd never heard of it before now, and there's a reason for that.

The storyteller--Ginger--was . . . well . . . entertaining, I suppose?

Story 1: Three boys can't go trick-or-treating and go to a witch's house instead, because the town grocer told them that "some things that happen on Halloween can't be undone."

Story 2: A woman dies and has her hand cut off. She left a little baby behind whom the innkeepers rear. A creepy peg-leg comes after her and tells her that "she's meddling with magic that she knows not from whence it came from" (yes, that was the spoken syntax--shudder).

Story 3: The evil stepmother gets sick of the stepchildren, so she cooks them and feeds them to their father.

Story 4: A bratty girl dies because she won't listen to her mother.

I was continually laughing because I felt so uncomfortable and the stories were so awful. Spooky? Definitely not. Funny? Only in an uncomfortable way. There's a reason I'd never heard of this particular Halloween event.

Operation Superhuman Reader: Summer Book #8

Atonement by Ian McEwan


My rating: 1 of 5 stars
I couldn't finish it. I hated the characters and barely got halfway through the book. I tried. I really did. I just couldn't finish it.

View all my reviews >>

a bit of faith restored

Friday was a blast of a night: Katie had a party up at her house in Alpine, and, as usual, there was more than enough to do and keep everyone entertained. There were probably around fifty or sixty people total who came, and it was a blast! I went up with Emily, her roommate Jessica, Brooke, and Tyler, which completely filled up the Toyota, making for a rockin' car ride listening to Hannah Montana and Cascada selections--talk about party. ;)

A quick recap on the night's activities: 3 games of air hockey (I won 2), 4 games of foosball (Tyler and I miserably lost 2), 2 games of knock-out (because it deals with a basketball, naturally, I did not advance far either time), 2 trips down the water slide, 2 trips to the bonfire pit, 2 rounds in the hot tub, 1 round in the pool. We arrived around 8:00 and left around midnight, making for an excellent, fun-filled, not-caring-what-time-it-was night.

The title of my post refers to my hot tub experience this time around. (Remember the last time I was in a hot tub?? . . . ) This time I went in the pool and the hot tub, I had a blast! The waterslide was certainly a score, I went off the diving board (but I definitely didn't dive--don't get the wrong impression), and I crammed into the hot tub with a bunch of people. We actually engaged in fun conversation and had a good time. That said, I do think that the factors were skewed in my favor. The people in the hot tub consisted primarily of those I drove with and other people I already knew: me, Emily, Jessica, Tyler, Brooke, Brennen, Mibrie (I'm not sure how to spell that--she's my next door neighbor), and James (Brennen's friend). Yeah. I would be way disappointed if I had a negative experience with all those people I know.

Okay, so maybe this hot tub round isn't enough to nullify my previous experience.

PS--I brought my camera, but stupidly did not take any pictures. You can use your imagination.

new level of shallow

Yesterday, I went for a run for the first time in a long time. It was kind of hard, but overall, very satisfying. Afterwards, I was sweaty and gross, and spontaneously decided to go to with my roommates to the complex hot tub. It was kind of fun putting on my swimsuit and strolling on over to the pool area for a bit of hot tub relaxation before I had to bunker down and complete some homework. There were several people already in the hot tub, but I didn't really think anything of it, seeing it as maybe an opportunity to just meet more people.

Boy, was I disappointed.

These people were ridiculous. I sat on the other side of the hot tub where it wasn't so crowded, and so I wasn't by my roommates. I didn't think this would be a big deal, because you know, people, in general, are friendly around here. Nope. Not one person even acknowledged my presence, and one of the boys there, I'd even met! There was this one girl in the hot tub who didn't even live in the complex who was doing everything she could to keep everyone's attention on her. It was ridiculous. (She even complained once that people always think that she's younger than she is, but my reaction was, "Well, stop acting like a sixteen-year-old and people will believe you're twenty.")

Not that I need attention whenever I enter a social setting, but I do think it's common courtesy to simply be friendly and acknowledge people, even if you're already in the middle of a conversation. My roommate Katie was interrogated about her major and overall life plans by another guy in the hot tub, (he was asking rude, attacking questions like, "Well, what if you don't get into the master's program?" and "Why in the world do you study English?"), and basically no one talked to us the entire time we were there. Katie and I both felt that our IQs dropped by at least ten points after being around those people. I mean, they were discussing the attractiveness of tattoos and how funny it would be if one of the girls lived in an apartment with the boys. Seriously?

After about ten or fifteen minutes of this hardly durable moron-fest, Katie and I left, appalled at that new level of shallow.

I like having a hot tub so close and all, but if these are the kind of people I have to be around to enjoy the hot tub, I'm out.