--7/28--

Sorry I've been so long in the updating. For one, I'm lazy; I also was off counseling at a summer camp the entire duration of last week. You know how it is.

I just got back yesterday, and that was mostly for sleeping, all in all. Today, though--today was for catching up with friends. I started it off by breaking a bowl in my room by bumping a table with my knee, and, because I had to clean up the mess, I was pretty much forced into wakefulness at 5 AM. I went online, figuring at least one of my two OL friends would be on--not because she's an early riser, but because she NEVER SLEEPS. Turns out BOTH of them were on, messing up what sleep schedules they have as much as possible. ^^; So I chatted with them until 7 AM, when I started getting ready for the Saturday ritual of going to Denny's at 8 AM. Denny's was nice, as usual. Talked a storm. Afterward, we went to the dual stores-o-laughs, the 99 Cent Store and BIGLOTS, which will STILL be known as Pic-N-Save among us. Jerky name changes. It's like Verizon. You don't know what the hell a place sells by its name anymore.

Now, usually, we'd call that that and head our ways. We'd arranged to go to a friend's house, though, which is pretty average. Another of the crowd, however, had to drop a tape off at Hastings. A store that I STILL name-associate with a battle, but, eh. That's what I get for knowing history? Hastings was where we smelt the lovely summer scent of jerk.

Let's build the scene. For those who don't have one in their area, Hastings is what it terms "an entertainment superstore." They have overpriced movies, rentals, CDs, video games, computer games, magazines, and books all under one overpriced roof of getting the shaft. A genuine haven of white suburbia. They do, however, have a good location and a reasonable rate on movies no one wants to watch, for 50 cents for about 4 nights--the best you'll get in town asides from the library. Which, I may add, has a nice stock. Go there. Such a movie was what my friend was returning. A Hastings 50-cent movie. Not a library movie. Although sometimes we do get Hastings' movies dropped off in the library, which begs the question: do people even LOOK at what they're doing?

Back on the track, she returned the movie, and, like any good pack of shiftless layabouts, we decided to hang out a bit and get a good free chuckle. Plus one of my friends wanted to buy a certain cover of Rolling Stone. I worry. I really do. So, after laughing good and hard at a kid's book we found about going to the bathroom (and, it must be noted, for future plot reference, we were the loudest here we were ever in the store) and how I, too, could be a Toileteer, we headed for the magazine section for that certain cover. Another buddy got distracted looking for TokyoPop, which is apparently discontinued. Eventually, though, my closest friend of the 5 (including myself) present and I went off to look at the "art" magazines. Now, at least in our Hastings, the art magazines (which we did legitamently want to see) are shelved right by the Gay & Lesbian ones. So, when we say we're looking at art, there's a 100% chance we will also be looking at hot guys. Seriously, if you want a magazine with hot guys, get XY. Not to be crude or anything, but a lot of hot guys happen to play the other team. You've seen it in anime, it happens in real life, too. We all gathered there in due time, and ganged up on one copy of XY. We weren't really noticing our surroundings, though. We flipped through, admiring guys, until we came to a particularly amusing comic about two guys who were supposed to meet dates in a cafe that they had met initially through online dating services. They were both dressed as their supposed dates were, so they thought that they were each the other's date. (Turns, of course, in the end the REAL dates are both fat 40-looking guys, whereas the leads are two hot 20-somethings.) One of my friends--the one with the Certain Copy of Rolling Stone--was reading bits of the comic aloud. Not the more insinuatory bits, but rather lines we thought amusing. For example, the guys were both at one university, and neither knew the other as gay. Well, in one panel, one of the guys said "I drive a pink bug! I mean, how obvious can I BE?" to which the other responded "I don't know, I just thought you were the vegan earth-loving sort!" Now, my friend read that aloud.

We continued chating it up for a while, when, suddenly, a guy turned from his magazine in the row against the wall (the setup is a row of mags ajacent to the wall, and about 4 island-rows with a walkway between the two. He was standing at the wall-row with a girl, and we were on one island-row in a position we could easily see eachother) and said "This is a book store. Can you keep it down?" in a belittling tone. Now, this opening line is bad enough. Three things are wrong with it:

1) Hastings is NOT a book store, especially in the magazine section, which is right by the music section and the movie section and no where NEAR the book section.

2) I've had people at least 80x as loud in the LIBRARY, for god's sake, which does NOT have loud blaring music and annoying TVs.

3) His belittling tone. I've asked people to "keep it down" at the library, and it's done in a soft tone, with "pleases" and "excuse mes" abound.

All the same, we all said an "I'm sorry" and went back to the mag, a bit flushed, but quiet. Suddenly, he pipes up again, sounding even more offended. "And what's wrong with vegans?" At this point, he was ramping up to "ass." Once you've accomplished your "Shut up," you leave it there. Underwritten rule of hushing people, and all. Well, obviously, nothing is wrong with vegans. The gal who had read the line said, chuckling "Ah, it was just a line in this comic in here, and I read it aloud." I said "I'm a vegan, myself, so nothing is wrong with them, obviously," in a sort of 'dude, calm down,' tone. He KEPT pushing the bill. "Well, I was very offended." I replied again, "I'm a vegan, I wouldn't insult them," in a little more exasperated tone. "What right do you have," he asked, irate, "to be upset at ME?" I just ignored him--no reasoning with some. He persisted with one more "I was offended." By now, most of us were silent, but Certain Cover girl said, with much sincerity "I'm very sorry you were offended. No offence was intended, okay?"

This is the universal sign for "Even If It Is Not My Fault, You Win. End Conversation." Even if it IS sarcasticly put, if you're dealing with strangers, it's good karma to end the conversation, because you don't know if they are REALLY sarcastic or not. You do NOT know a stranger's subtleties, intonations, and way of being. Which makes his furthering of the point even MORE jackassed.

"Okay, sure," he snorted, and kinda nodded. I can't recall if the girl did anything the whole time--my attention was split between jerk-with-military-haircut and an article on chairs made by a New York surrealist in a modern art mag. My friend was kind of exasperated by his pushing. "I'm not being sarcastic," she said, calmly. "Yea. Sure," he continued. "Well, I'm sorry you don't believe me. I'm not being sarcastic, I'm really sorry if you're offended," she persisted. He snorted again, but by this time, no one was caring. We were quiet for a bit, but we decided without words that such a person didn't need silence, and got a bit loud again, if you could call us loud.

I don't know what was with him, really. As my friend said, "some people just want to be offended." I think he was trying to impress the girl with his "EXTREME MORALITY" or something. He was, after all, looking at body-building magazines. And he wasn't built.

Times like this make you wonder how true Time's current cover story is: "Men: The Weaker Sex."