This Is A BOOK Store!

[bloodyrosemccoy]

So since I was going there straight from work, I arrived at Barnes and Noble some time before the rest of the book club. This was handy, because it gave me time to head to the café and get a sandwich. I still had some time, though, so I also went to the AV section to see if they had the DVD I was planning to get my brother for his birthday which was last month but whatever. They did not have it, so I threaded my way through racks of LEGOs and puzzles and shit to meet with the book nerds.

After the meeting, I went back to the café and got a lemon bar for when I got home. I stuck it in my bag and turned to leave—and saw, on one of the islands of toys, a plush Yoshi that was too dang cute to pass up.

So I picked him up and brought him past the lap desks and the bookends, and looking at the Nook accessories it occurred to me that I have been needing a new mousepad, since the bacterial civilization that is doubtless growing on the one I have can’t be far from rising up and slaying me. Perhaps there was one here!

“Say,” I said to the information lady. “Would you happen to have mousepads here?”

The lady gave me the exasperated look all great minds adopt after dealing with idiots all day—a look that said There Are No Dumb Questions, Just Incredibly Stupid People. “No,” she said with exaggerated patience. “This is a book store.”

“Oh, okay,” I said. “I figured it was worth a shot.”

Then I went up front, paid for my plush Yoshi,* stuck it in the bag next to my lemon bar, and went on my merry way, chuckling a little at my own naïveté. Looking for mousepads! In a bookstore! What was I thinking?

The lemon bar was delicious, by the way.


*Although that took some doing. There was no tag, and the lady up front was apparently from some alternate dimension where smokery Jersey accents exist but Nintendo does not. She somehow became convinced that the plush toy was made by a company she called “Super Mary-o,” but the website she used to look up the price kept telling her Super Mary-o was not a toy but a game, which was just weird, if you asked her.

Comments

[dark-skada.livejournal.com]

Wait... your B&N doesn't have mousepads? I bought one there in college that had the most awesome elephant on it, and was looking at this cute owl one there just last month... (in fact, they even have a bunch of WoW mousepads on their website...)

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

OF COURSE NOT THIS IS A BOOKSTORE

Yeah, it seemed logical to me to think there might be one. Not to mention that they actually had a few mousepads being sold up front, but they were sold as parts of ugly stationery packs, which I did not need.

I may have to embrace family tradition and find a national park mousepad.

[stormteller.livejournal.com]

I got a computer lap table at B&N. I'm using it right now. It's still good after several years constant use, though it got warped after I left it in heavy sun and is starting to wear holes where the feet have been digging at it, and actually I've been meaning to get a new one next time I'm there.

But mousepads? Weird.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Those lap desks are goddamn useful, aren't they? I've got one from the Eugene Market (what can I say; it's Eugene) that I've used for everything since the beginning of college. Best 35 bucks I ever spent.

[marag.livejournal.com]

::snerk::

Gotta love it :)

[westrider.livejournal.com]

I was down the pub with my Dad yesterday, and they had a sign up in the bathroom* that said "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone astride a horse." The Icon you're currently using popped right into my head.

*They have lots of amusing signs in there, occasionally rotating new ones in. My all time favorite was "Used Beer Department" over the urinal.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Well, they reserve that right, but would they exercise it against Isaiah Mustafa?

I love your icon, too. I will have to tell Mom to use it as an excuse if she ever needs to.

[westrider.livejournal.com]

Of course not. He's clearly a responsible upstanding (up-horse-sitting?) guy.

You should look up the song that icon's from. It's pretty funny.

[acrossthelake.livejournal.com]

How is the book club going, anyway? And yes, that's too funny. Was it the Sugarhouse Barnes and Noble? You would think that a direct frontal view of both the cafe *and* music section, not to mention all those board games at the top of the elevator, would have tipped her off...

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

TOP of the escalator? Man, have you seen the redesign? Now they're at the top, under the escalator, plopped where the fantasy section used to be ... The books are getting a bit edged out, really.

As for the club, the organizer is all sad that the group hasn't really taken off yet, despite only having had two meetings. If you've got any Salt Lake pals who want to discuss fantasy books, let me know and I'll send you and them the info!

[acrossthelake.livejournal.com]

Sparky, who you met at Reefer Madness Live, springs immediately to mind but I'm sure there are some others I can round up. I'll point 'em your way.