Thursday, February 22, 2007

Food Fair Vignettes

Ventilation problems again. There’s a very slight smokiness in the air from the Thai place with their numerous woks.

************************************************************

Four men in their late 40s, early 50s. Business suits, white shirts. They sit discussing yesterday’s hockey game. Habs vs…who the hell knows. Dissecting the game, analysing every play. Deciding where the coach went wrong, what the players should or shouldn’t have done. Everyone’s an expert.

************************************************************

A woman with a toddler. The kid starts wandering around, pulls a tray off a table. The woman starts yelling at the person sitting at the table that he should be more careful of his tray. What the fuck?

************************************************************

A 30-something reading War and Peace. Part of a New Years this-year-I’m-going-to-read-at-leat-10-classics resolution?

************************************************************

A gaggle of teenage girls. They remind me of chattering squirrels. They go on and on and on. It just never stops. I marvel that I was once a teenage girl. Though I never travelled in a pack. I was the one skulking on the outskirts. I find it hard to fathom that for some people, the teenage years are the best years of their lives. I found them godawful and couldn’t get out of them quickly enough. And they chatter on…

12 comments:

Ian Lidster said...

Ooh, I'd slash my wrists befoe I'd be a teen again, were I given the chance. Hideous time, even in retrospect. And the chatter of teen girls is different in one respect from when I was in my teens, and that is the unabashed public use of profanity. I mean, really, WTF is that all about? It's truly offensive yet is never challenged.
And thank you for your 'unbirthday' greeting, and thank you for your 'scenes from a mall.' Good stuff.

Ian

Lori Stewart Weidert said...

Ugh, I was never a giggly teenage pak-girl either; even in the midst of my "circle" of friends now that I'm mid 40s, I listen more than I talk; it's rare that anyone notices. ;-)

This is an interesting post; where were you? Did you blog from where you were sitting? Take notes and write later? Have your laptop with you? I often jot down my surroundings in a little journal I carry; this was reminiscent of that, made me curious.

Jazz said...

Ian - No one under 20 (male or female) should be allowed to swear - upon pain of death. That would take care of the problem real quick... ;-)

gnightgirl - this post is just observations from the food fair close to where I work. Sometimes I take notes, sometimes I just keep it in my head. In this case, I will admit I cheated - the lady with the kid wasn't the same day as the hockey guys...

ticknart said...

Did you keep hoping that the men in the buisiness suits would dribble all over themselves as they ate?

geewits said...

I have fond memories of teenhood but most of them are from age 18 to age 18.5. I guess a good six months is something. I wish the person with the tray had picked it up and whacked the mom on top of the head with it. That would have been sweet.

Jocelyn said...

Oh, yes, I look at all the teen girls around me--so certain, they are, of their superiority--and think, "No fing way would I do that again."

I love this vignette approach. Those little slices of life are so revealing.

Jazz said...

Tick - LOL, yeah, not too big on the whole suit thing myself... Besides, there was no plaid with stripes...

Geewits - Six whole months? I'm impressed.

Jocelyn - You gotta wonder about mother nature: Out of childhood and straight into hell... Evil bitch she is.

Tai said...

I'm with Ian. Just leave me out of teenage hood!

I like these vignettes...mind if I borrow this idea?

Big Brother said...

Never never would I go back to being a teen. I work with them all day and they show unlimited amounts of energy, gets tiring sometimes. But then again it keeps me young. I can observe them all the time, must be hard to take life so seriously. Boyfriend talks to another girl.. ..ahhhhhhh end of th e world, a day later they're best buddies. G*d forbid that I should ever have to live through that again, must be the ultimate bad karma to get stuck with that.
As for the person with the tray... I'm with geewits, hit her with said tray... She should have yelled at junior and done her duty as a mother. Another kid that'll grow up believing it's all everyone else's fault but his own.

Lhia said...

Wouldn't ever go back to being a teen. I didn't enjoy most of my teen age years
and what I did enjoy probably wouldnt fill a blog post.

It wasn't bad, just wasn't real good either. There are worse things I imagine.

I absolutly LOVE these slices of life you've written about.

Jazz said...

Tai - feel free to use the concept

BB - I don't know how you do it. Teens in packs are total aliens to me.

Lhia - seems to be the consensus. The teen years just totally suck.

Steven said...

If the teenage years are the best of my life I am completely and totally fucked. ;)

Steve~