If you can call them that.

This day after Christmas was a good day for a person who gets easily agitated by crowds of dumb people getting in the way. There was hardly anyone out this afternoon. Overall, probably a sad thing for society as a whole, but I was loving it. I made some after-holiday gift returns with no long lines.

Afterward, I went to retrieve my online food order at a place nearby. Not many people waiting, but there was a mom with three kids, and I instantly fell in love with her oldest, a slender girl of about 10 or 11 with long platinum blond hair (it looked like she hadn't washed it today, but I kinda liked her slightly tussled look). She was wearing a dark gray hoodie, and she seemed SO shy or timid being out in public, despite looks that should have had her radiating total confidence. She met my eyes when I walked in and I almost fell backward. They got their order and moved around to the side. Mom was fussing with her younger ones and the take-out order, so I looked at her again and she looked at me again. I was suddenly startled by a boisterously friendly fat guy with glasses in his mid-20's asking me if I had an order. I was pulled back to my dim reality and muttered something about pad-thai. He handed me my bag and I rounded the same corner they had. Mom was still fussing, and I thought the girl wouldn't look at me again, but just before I reached the door, she dared to look up again and meet my gaze. Sometimes you gauge success just by the fact that she "probably" wondered if you thought she was special in some way. She did. She looked a lot like Kendra, the mid-teens girl from my mid to late 20's, a strangely nerdy but gorgeous blond hippy-girl with a ponytail, who took the time to make me both a friendship bracelet and a very skilled hemp necklace. I never threw them away. Sigh..

So then I stopped at the supermarket. There was some little brunette girl with dark pretty brown eyes, late seven or eight, a somewhat serious face despite her cute little nose, wearing a purple coat. stretch pants, and tan fur-lined boots, obediently following behind her dad. She had the most face! She didn't notice me at first, but I made my move in the dairy section, glancing down at her while her dad was checking for broken eggs. She noticed, but didn't seem to register anything.

We parted ways, but I made a point to casually cut them off from the other end of the snack aisle (so as not to make it look like I was following from behind, a dead giveaway!). Dad, who was weirdly wearing shorts while his daughter was bundled in a coat, didn't notice. I finally saw her plump little patootie, just before she turned around with a discerning look of "you again, huh?" I panicked just a little. This girl had an unshakable serious expression, and I just couldn't figure it out. So I retreated back to the bread aisle. As fate would have it, they, too needed to go there to grab some hamburger buns, and this time she was sort of squinting my way, as if to say "STATE THE PURPOSE OF THY PRESENCE, STRANGE ADMIRER!"

I knew the jig was up, and my half-and-half was getting warm anyway. We both made our way to the checkout area. I tried to by slow at the automated checkout with my creamer and my cantaloupe, but they had quite a few more items, so there was no way. Save the last glance for me was probably made toward the bag-boy, who probably looks at cp in his off hours and is NO GOOD for MYYYY cute little bubble-butted muffin girl. That pimply-faced scoundrel.

So that was my outing.