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Jun. 27th, 2007 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
phthalombrageFaced with the reality of having to get up at 1 AM, drive to Miami at 2 AM and wait in line all day for Thursday and possibly Friday as well, I stuck in my contacts and hoped to avoid making the pictures as crappy as they came out the last time.
The Walgreens across from my house said I'd have to come back tomorrow; the photo girl was trying to fix the machine. I was worried because I had no idea where to find another Walgreens, but they're on every corner here so it couldn't be that bad, right? I continued down Bee Ridge. Fuck, that one was a CVS. I actually called home to ask where one was when I came upon a Walgreens nestled in the intersection of Bee Ridge and Beneva. It's great how I've lived here for as long as I can remember and am still surprised when I find a drugstore that's always been there.
Some old guy is trying to get into a car with the sprinklers sprinkling onto it. Apparently his wife is already in the car, and he had opened the door for her. That's sweet and all (and watching old men hobble away from streams of water is kind of fuuny/pathetic), but my first thought is how much water the fucking sprinkler is wasting, watching it trickle down the asphalt. I suck.
A truck is backing up and almost bowls over a grandma leaving the store. That's rich.
Inside I get to the photo place and what do you know? Another old couple. Lol, everyone's old! I only realize as I'm getting ready to leave this place. Also where everything is.
But when I get up to the photo counter, it's Adam. The oldest sibling of the family that formerly lived in the house across the street from mine. The perfect family of my childhood, bespectacled, clean, happy, now divorced. They cleaned every fucking week, steamed the carpets and everything. Once when Adam and Emily babysat, I cleaned my room so they wouldn't see all the mess. Active in the church, had chores, helped out, everything my family sucked at. I think their cat was named Sand Dollar... Adam used to clean his litter box. Oh yeah, little Andrew drowned in the pool out back when everyone was inside making sandwiches. Adam helped me beat the playground sand out of a pair of clompy little girl shoes on my driveway once. Danielle and I had earthworm funerals and pretended to be Indians andplayed with the centripetal force of our backpacks, and she sometimes invited me over to their house because she wanted to, not because a friend couldn't come, back when I was "friends" with the neighborhood girls. She wore conical hats at my birthday parties and accompanied me on Bring a Friend to Dance Week. I wrote an essay once about how she was perfect. Now she cashiers at Sweetbay. Their house smelled like eucalyptus and had beige carpets. There used to be a big tree in their front yard, and there used to be a tree for Andrew. Emily and she and I all used to sing on the bus, sing Barney hate songs and Wee Sing songs...
So he ended up being a Walgreens Photo Expert. I thought he had plans for the army or something.
It was weird because he still looks the same; he's still Adam, just he's put on weight and is probably taller, there in an apron talking to an old man who's going to waddle around the store until his order is finished.
I don't know if he recognized me, but he certainly didn't remember my name. No affirmation when I mentioned that we used to be across-the-street neighbors. I gave him my phone number, last name, first name. (When I gave him the last name, he started "R-I-" and I cut him off.) Took photo, gave business card for Gulliver's Travels, helped next customer as I stared at inventory on the walls.
I can understand why Lindsey's mom didn't recognize me when she came in to sign estate plan documents, but this was kind of weird.
Another old man acted like he just found out Santa was real when the non-Amish lady behind the counter at Troyer's Ducth Heritage revealed to him that the entire kitchen staff was Moroccan. "You actually thought there were little Amish people back there?"
He'll probably never come back.
The Walgreens across from my house said I'd have to come back tomorrow; the photo girl was trying to fix the machine. I was worried because I had no idea where to find another Walgreens, but they're on every corner here so it couldn't be that bad, right? I continued down Bee Ridge. Fuck, that one was a CVS. I actually called home to ask where one was when I came upon a Walgreens nestled in the intersection of Bee Ridge and Beneva. It's great how I've lived here for as long as I can remember and am still surprised when I find a drugstore that's always been there.
Some old guy is trying to get into a car with the sprinklers sprinkling onto it. Apparently his wife is already in the car, and he had opened the door for her. That's sweet and all (and watching old men hobble away from streams of water is kind of fuuny/pathetic), but my first thought is how much water the fucking sprinkler is wasting, watching it trickle down the asphalt. I suck.
A truck is backing up and almost bowls over a grandma leaving the store. That's rich.
Inside I get to the photo place and what do you know? Another old couple. Lol, everyone's old! I only realize as I'm getting ready to leave this place. Also where everything is.
But when I get up to the photo counter, it's Adam. The oldest sibling of the family that formerly lived in the house across the street from mine. The perfect family of my childhood, bespectacled, clean, happy, now divorced. They cleaned every fucking week, steamed the carpets and everything. Once when Adam and Emily babysat, I cleaned my room so they wouldn't see all the mess. Active in the church, had chores, helped out, everything my family sucked at. I think their cat was named Sand Dollar... Adam used to clean his litter box. Oh yeah, little Andrew drowned in the pool out back when everyone was inside making sandwiches. Adam helped me beat the playground sand out of a pair of clompy little girl shoes on my driveway once. Danielle and I had earthworm funerals and pretended to be Indians andplayed with the centripetal force of our backpacks, and she sometimes invited me over to their house because she wanted to, not because a friend couldn't come, back when I was "friends" with the neighborhood girls. She wore conical hats at my birthday parties and accompanied me on Bring a Friend to Dance Week. I wrote an essay once about how she was perfect. Now she cashiers at Sweetbay. Their house smelled like eucalyptus and had beige carpets. There used to be a big tree in their front yard, and there used to be a tree for Andrew. Emily and she and I all used to sing on the bus, sing Barney hate songs and Wee Sing songs...
So he ended up being a Walgreens Photo Expert. I thought he had plans for the army or something.
It was weird because he still looks the same; he's still Adam, just he's put on weight and is probably taller, there in an apron talking to an old man who's going to waddle around the store until his order is finished.
I don't know if he recognized me, but he certainly didn't remember my name. No affirmation when I mentioned that we used to be across-the-street neighbors. I gave him my phone number, last name, first name. (When I gave him the last name, he started "R-I-" and I cut him off.) Took photo, gave business card for Gulliver's Travels, helped next customer as I stared at inventory on the walls.
I can understand why Lindsey's mom didn't recognize me when she came in to sign estate plan documents, but this was kind of weird.
Another old man acted like he just found out Santa was real when the non-Amish lady behind the counter at Troyer's Ducth Heritage revealed to him that the entire kitchen staff was Moroccan. "You actually thought there were little Amish people back there?"
He'll probably never come back.
