OUT AND ABOUT TALES

 

C was visiting her nail place one afternoon and on her way down a back aisle to use the restroom she encountered a white plastic laundry basket with a lid. It was blocking her way and almost immediately, a female employee swooped over to move it using her foot. It didn't budge. She bent down to drag it and again, she was surprised how heavy it was. She stood up and took a half pace back to assess the situation when suddenly the top exploded with a 4-5 year old boy popping out like a jack-in-a box. Gleefully, he shouted with his hands raised something in Vietnamese that could very well have been "ha ha ha I sure scared you!" The employee, who probably was an Auntie, quickly got him out of the box while sliding it out of C's way murmuring an apology. C, smiling, told the boy that he was quite a scamp as the lad proudly stood grinning ear to ear. 

It is quite popular these days that waiting rooms of all stripes have playing on their TVs, the HG network. There are many variations: the young spunky DIY couple taking on their first Money Pit; the Buy and Flippers; the buyers who need professional help in making decisions about renovations. Unlike This Old House, which is geared more towards the instructive, these often veer into tedious dramas and conflict. One of these was on as well as something curious and unusual which caught C's eye. This show concerned bushcraft, specifically the making of a fish trap out of saplings to use in a nearby river. The sound was off so it had a bit of ASMR about it akin to the Serbian bush cooking series I've enjoyed on YouTube. She thought it was quite interesting and commented on its curious juxtaposition with the surrounding.

I was in Kroger on late morning going down the wide final aisle flanked with banks of freezers and coolers. In front of me was a young Mom with two blond/honey haired girls aged 5-6 years old in the cart. One was a curly top. Coming towards us was another Mom with 2 light haired girls their cart about the same age. I wondered to myself how the girls would react to each other-the Moms were busy. At some point all four caught sight of each other and locked eyes. Not a word was spoken, no gesture was given. They looked at each other intently and continued to do so as the carts passed.

We've been watching a lot of Attenborough lately and I practically had his voice narrating in my head about how the young females of our species act when encountering other females of the same age.