TODAY AT LOGOS

22 Apr 2016

Wow.  Writing this late today.  I fell asleep during The Blacklist, didn't feel like writing this at 3 a.m. when I woke up, so it is now after 9 a.m. that I am starting this.  I'm getting lazy in my old age.

Sandy was not there when I arrived -- I think she may be traveling again.  Anyway, there was a guy I'd never met who was working.  He had decided he didn't like the way the desk was arranged and had rarranged the whole thing, moving the cash register all the way to the left and moving the credit card machine to the front on the right.  I put everything back after he left.  I dunno...it's worked fine for 5 years....

It was quite busy the first few minutes, with cutomers one right after the other. The first was a woman in a sari who didn't speak English, but bought a book called "Mindfulness is better than chocolate."  Her ?daughter translated for her.

The next woman bought a literature book I cant remember.  She commented on my being left handed, which she is also, and we compared our respective schooling as left handers.

The next woman bought a French dictionary and a guide to Paris.  We talked about France and I mentioned that I'd been to Paris 3 times and have yet to find the "mystique," but that I loved the south of France.

A guy bought a copy of "Ulysses," which was about 4" thick.  He said he felt it was a challenge he wanted to try (reading it).  I told him about when I read "Tom Jones" (about 1,000 pages) because I had read "Marjorie Morningstar" where someone scoffed at her reading "Tom Jones" and said that nobody read that book for pleasure.  I took that as a challenge and did enjoy all ~1000 pages of it!

The train guy came in today, this time with time to spend.  He comes in every week, rushes in, grabs something, throws money at me and rushes off to catch the train.  Today, with time to spend, he couldn't find anything he wanted to read and left without buying anything.

A guy came in looking for books on zen and left with "The Te of Piglet."

Another volunteer brought in a bag of books and raved over and over again about how clean the back room was.  She had never seen it like that.  She must not have looked often.  I often see it that organized.

A guy rode by on a bike, blocking the door for a minute, then took a bike from the bargain shelves, parked his bike, rushed in to hand me a dollar, and rode off on his bike again

A balding guy with a small murse over his shoulder bought two contemporary fictions and "Tale of Two Cities."

A guy in a green shirt with "Dan's taxi" on it bought two contemporary fictions, one by Jhumpa Lahiri, whose "The Lowland" I read recently for book club. I wondered if "Dan's Taxi" is in Davis.  I remember calling one time to find out how much it would cost to get a taxi from Logos to my house (about a mile and a half) and he told something ridiculous like $30.  That's when I became a bus rider.

Two women came in with 3 kids, all younger than Brianna, one a toddler.  They looked around the kids' room for awhile, but ultimately didn't buy anything, but the kids ran all around the store a couple of times yelling "good bye!" before they left.  They were very cute.

It had been a quiet afternoon and I was surprised it was as late as it was (4:15) when my friend arrived.  Even he couldn't find anything to buy today.

A lesbian couple came in and were still there when I left at 6.  They must have looked at every book, then settled in at the front table to read the NY Times Book review and just chat.  It was kind of homey.

An Indian-looking woman had a large bag I liked, with book titles printed all over it.  She wore a voluminous scarf around her neck and had ear buds, and a green drink in her hand. . She bought two books by Aeschylus.

I was relieved by Cassandra, who takes care of things when Susan and Peter are out of town.  They return today, I guess.

I was so tired I didn't even come into my office (since I could check my e-mail on my iPad) and, as i said, fell asleep during what was probably the weirdest Blacklist ever.

I did watch Stephen Colbert at 3 a.m., in time to see him and Tom Hanks eating Fruit Loops with Bailey's Irish Cream, a nod to a comment made by Reince Preibus, then back to sleep until nearly 8.