Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Early dark

It was already night outside when I rolled down the stairs to the street. My office is above an overpriced furniture store, and one passerby was unprepared for the spectacle. As he walked past the glowing window, he spoke, in a conversational tone to no-one:

"It's all white," like it was pulled out of him involuntarily. "Everything is white in there," he went on to explain, disappearing down the street.

I checked for evidence of a cell phone. Not even an ear bud.

But he had a point.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought beige was the new white?

Bones said...

The answer is, plastic slipcoverers and a room that is off-limits! (Doesn't everyone have one relative that does that?)

Okay, continuing in the conversations overheard vein, the other day while standing with the rest of the early-morning zombies in front of the in-store Starbucks at the Corte Madera Safeway, the woman who staffs the counter came bustling up behind us, talking to the young man she usually works with. Now, this lady looks like Grandma in a green apron: puffy, hair-sprayed helmet of curly hair, apple cheeks, round, full-bosomed, short. Calls everyone "dear" and "sweetie." Anyway, Grandma Starbucks comes walking up saying "...that's why I can't carry a knife, 'cause I'd be stabbing everybody."

Huh?

Anonymous said...

cb:

I'm just trying to make a living.

Owner of Furniture Store

Joseph K said...

Laugh now heathans, but the coming of the white is the beginning of the Rapture. Yo, J.C., I've always had your back...

jkirlin said...

I love how cell phones have given people who talk to themselves an element of momentary respectability. But I have found that people who talk to themselves are usually quieter than cell phone users. Even the screamers.

Chemical Billy said...

Anonymous - no, white is the new black.

bones & anna - slipcovers are so over. Our furniture is vacuum sealed in plastic.

Furniture Store Owner - no better place for it than Pacific Heights.

joseph k - ummm, I wouldn't sell your house, just yet.

jeff - yeah. Maybe it's because everyone else is usually welcome to join the conversation when someone is talking to themselves.