Tuesday, April 12, 2005

I had to go to the mall for a while

I mean it's crazy but why is it that sometimes when you go to the mall you see a really horrible cross-section of types of problems that can befall the body or mind.

Yesterday I went on down to the Bel Via SouthSide Arcade because Molly got this one gift certificate for some Lady Foot Locker shoes and I was like sure, I will go with you. I like when she has cute shoes on and I definitely have not liked some of the shoes she has chosen in the past.

Anyhow it was a pretty crowded day at the mall and it was one of those Sad Days, you know, when the public assistance groups have all converged on the mall as that day's outing. I saw a lot of bad stuff and it was profoundly depressing. Here is a list of the stuff that I saw while we were trying to buy a fun pair of sporty shoes for my lady.

1) Molly went into this one store to look at swimsuit tops and since it was pretty crowded I decided to stay out of the fray and hang in the atrium in front of the store. A kind of big-butt lady was walking towards me so I looked in her direction kind of carefully, making sure my glance was casting across her as she walked, so as to imply that I had been sweeping my gaze in that direction regardless of her presence. Dang but this lady had a thick purple birthmark across the right half of her face, and it was thick like a scab, the skin did not behave like regular face skin. It kind of gave her a dummy-pinch and the real sad part was that you could tell she was not a dummy, just deformed. Whenever I see a person like that all deformed by skin conditions, in my mind I try to make a situation where a man who really loves her treats her right and sees her true self, like a nice Jason Alexander. Maybe that is the only way I can move on. I know that that woman will probably have a pretty hard time finding a boyfriend who is not fraught with his own issues, though.

2) Retard square dancing.
Well, the square dancers themselves were not retarded, but they were performing in the main open area in front of the entrance to Macy's and all these really retarded people were sitting on the planterbox benches and also on the ground, watching the dancers. The square dancers were obviously this horribly embarrassed group of church kids in embroidered denim shirts who were being led around the basic square dance moves by this old man in a bolo tie and pervert smile, like he was their youth group leader, and he kept staring at the little girl with the microphone to make sure she kept saying the "do-si-do" square dance words. He had a smile the whole time, even though you could tell he was mad at how bad everybody was fucking up. The square dancing the kids did was among the most uncomfortable forced adolescent activity I have ever seen firsthand.

3) A little while later I saw a small group of helpers helping a retarded girl who had peed her pants into the restroom. They were being really nice to her and making sure she did not feel she did anything wrong.

Molly did not end up liking any of the shoes available and then we paid over seven dollars each for sandwiches at the food court before we headed home. Even now the horrible lives of the people at the mall are causing me pretty haunting thoughts. That lady with the birthmark, can she even feel it when she scratches the thick purple skin?