1. The other day, I was ringing up a woman's purchase while her friend stood back and watched. The woman decided to go ahead and get a discount card, which requires her name, phone number, etc., so following the prompts on the register I first asked for her last name. She told me -- it was "Arnold" -- and suddenly her friend burst into laughter so hysterical she had to lean against the adjacent counter as she tried desperately to catch her breath, only to break out into peals of laughter just as it seemed that she was about to stop. I thought this was rather strange, so I looked over at her with a raised eyebrow as the customer inquired as to what was so funny. Quoth the laughing woman, "Your name... that always makes me think of Benedict."

Then they both broke out in a maniacal fit of laughter. If they ever stopped, it wasn't until after they left the store.

2. The day before, a man who couldn't hear and couldn't speak came into the store and asked for a piece of paper and a pen so he could communicate via writing. The first thing he wrote was, "Hi." That made me smile.

3. And tonight I kinda hit on one of the customers. Not really, but here's how it went. As I was coming back from break I noticed that an attractive female customer was sitting on the floor of one of the aisles reading a book. I told her that we have chairs in the store for that purpose, but she replied that when she'd sat down they were all occupied. I glanced back and said that some customers appeared to have left, but she thanked me and said she was comfortable on the floor for the time being. Later, I noticed that she wasn't in the aisle anymore, so I went back to see if she'd moved to one of our chairs. She had, and again thanked me for my concern. Since tonight was a really slow night -- at one point, only she and two other customers were in the store at the time (and one of those was a guy who comes in every night in last couple of hours before closing time and sits on the floor in the back reading comics and waggling his head) -- I went back to check on her another time and asked what she was reading. It was a math book about prime numbers.

"So," I said. "You like numbers, eh?"

Before I made that second trip back there, I'd actually written down my e-mail address and the Scary-Crayon URL on a post-it note that I'd intended to give her, but I couldn't think of a good way to work it in -- I thought of using the "numbers" comment as a segue into something involving phone numbers, but thought better of it -- so I left it in my pocket and returned to the front of the store. Later, when she came up to buy the numbers book and handed over her credit card, I asked if I knew her. This wasn't part of the hitting on her, mind you; I was legitimately curious -- I thought I recognized the name, and part of my "attraction" to her could've been explained by a certain sense of familiarity. But she said she didn't think so, because she's not from around here. I nodded, and as I handed her her the bag with her book I offered her the folded post-it note and said, "Well, even so, drop me a line if you feel like it -- I dunno, you seem interesting." She gave me the "you fucking freak" look and took the note, but held it as if it were a used kleenex that she couldn't wait to get rid of as soon as she encountered the nearest trash bin -- and the way she held it and looked at me, I wouldn't have been at all surprised if I'd found it on the floor during cleanup later on. (I didn't, but that just means she waited until she got outside to toss it.)

I turned to one of the other employees and said, "I hate being so creepy... but it's what I do."

(And heh... given the last few SC updates, in the event that she does actually visit the site, she's really going to think I'm a freakshow. Sigh.)

Also today (I won't number this one), one of my old elementary/middle school classmates stopped into the store today with his two-year-old son. And I dunno, it made me feel kinda odd and young to see that. I mean here was a kid whom I met in the second grade, just after I moved back to the States from Germany. I took Judo classes with his older sister (who, being bigger and older than me, used to pummel me -- I'm still plotting my revenge). And now he's got a kid. Some girls were chatting with him, and after he left I asked how they knew him -- I wondered if I might've had classes with them too at some point -- but they said that they were friends of his fiance. FIANCE? So he's got a two-year-old kid and is getting married. And again, that just made me feel young. Most of the people working at the bookstore are my age (except for the few older ones), but they're all getting married and don't live with their parents and stuff, and anytime I hear from any of my old college mates it seems like they're moving out or getting married or embarking on careers or having kids or some/all of the above, and here I am making practically nothing in a pitiful part-time job and going nowhere fast. It's depressing.

Okay, I'm done. Ja.