the mall

It's like a drunk who forgets the agony he or she was in last time and goes right back to it. The mall that is.

I always assume: there's lots of stores in the mall and therefore the chance of finding the item (usually of clothing) is greater than say just going to Target, right? Except for the one time I went and found that GAP had 25% off everything even sale things, that has never happened. And almost without fail, I walk out of the place after 30 minutes or 90 minutes with nothing but a splitting headache. Whether that has to do with carrying one of my children or just bad fumes that permeate the place, I do not know.

The one good use of a mall however, I did notice yesterday. People watching.

Yesterday when we walked in, there were these 3 teenage boys in the sitting area behind Caribou Coffee doing handstand tricks. Yes, teenage not toddlers. I'll admit I was probably an abnormal teenager but I never thought of hanging out by the mall couches to practice breakdancing.

Later there was this kid, maybe 13, sitting on another mall bench with a person I would assume would be his "girlfriend"( if that's possible at that age when you take public transportation or your parent drives you in the minivan for a date) laying with her head on his lap. I had to do a double take mostly because he was still at the stage where he could pass for a gangly pre-adolescent girl or an awkward pre-adolescent boy.

Even college students trying to look cool were there strutting their stuff. I'm still getting use to the Scooby-Do Shaggy look where you have to constantly twitch your head to the side your hair is combed to maintain the look. That takes a lot of work.

As I was leaving the mall establishment, I also realized that it is not my imagination that styles that were in when I was a third grader are back. The hot pink spandex jeans and flats are just not the most flattering cut in jeanswear, but you could pick the girl I saw wearing this out of a crowd of a million.