Thursday evening ‘cool down’ open thread

Lots of issues out there that we’re all hot under the collar about today, so I thought a nice calm, laid back thread would be appropriate for this evening. I’ll start it off with recapping some somewhat amusing scenes that played out before me while I was at a local mall this afternoon eating lunch in the food court.

I usually try to snag a table near the edge of mall food courts whenever I can, because those tables are closest to the walking area of malls, and you almost always can witness some type of funny or head-shaking exchange going on with groups of people who walk by. Today was no exception.

There was a blonde lady who looked to be about my age, walking towards the mall exit with her young (I’m guessing three year old) daughter (or I assumed she was her daughter, anyway). The mom had on a tropical-themed top and her daughter had on this cute little Hawaiian-type outfit: a skirt and a cute top. On a nearby bench on one of the main interior mall walkways, a man was sitting with someone who I presume was his young son (I’d guess his age to be around 4 or so). The little guy became quite animated when the mother and daughter team passed by, so much so that he ran about 30 feet to catch up with the little girl, who he started laughing with – as kids so often do. The father jumped up from the bench and dashed over to catch his son before he wandered off any further, and in the process he started talking and laughing with the mother. This went on for, oh, about ten minutes or so as I sat there and ate my lunch. I chuckled to myself and wondered which guy (father or son) was going to stake his claim first

At a nearby table, a group of young guys who were wearing the uniforms of a nearby auto repair shop sat at the edge of the food court as well and enjoyed their lunches. Lunch was not all they enjoyed, if the looks they gave to certain passersby were any indication …

On a personal front, temptation hit me in a big way as I walked to the food court from Sears (no, Chip Jr. has no reason to be jealous). Along the route from Sears to the food court you’ll find the evil store called Bath and Body Works. Me walking by a B&BW is the same thing as a guy driving by an auto show – must stop in and visit. I walked on the opposite end of the walkway, knowing that if I were walking on the same side that B&BW was on, I’d be lured in by their sweet scents. It was a good thought in theory, but in reality it didn’t work. As usual, they had some new fall scents sitting on a table right outside the store on display for gullible customers such as myself to try out. So I did. First was the new “Exotic Coconut” fragrance, which immediately made me think of the beach. Mmm. The other one, which I found much more intoxicating, was the one called “Sensual Amber” – good smelling stuff. I didn’t give in to the temptation to make a purchase (and it had nothing to do with the fact that I could probably open my own B&BW store with all the lotions, etc, that I have from there) but that’s not to say I won’t be able to resist the next time I visit

Here’s some soothing music/video entertainment for you this evening. Of course, it’s a song by my childhood idol Olivia Newton-John off the Physical album. The song is called “Carried Away” – it’s a sweet song about a gal who has eyes for someone who has eyes for someone else. The tune is nice, but the video is weird, probably one of the weirdest I’ve ever seen. ONJ is sitting/laying on what looks like white shag carpet in an octagon (?) shaped room. It almost looks like she’s doing very low impact aerobics (when she’s not rolling on the floor). I choose this song for three reasons: 1) Olivia is wearing the color lavendar, which is a relaxing color (as any gal who has shopped for a calming fragrance will tell you – because the most popular relaxing scent is called ‘lavendar’), 2) I figured it was a nice slow song female readers would like, and 3) I surmised that male readers would enjoy the vid for, um, other reasons. There’s a reason I didn’t post the vid at the beginning of this post, because I figured male readers wouldn’t make it past it

BTW, remember that this is an open thread – discuss whatever you like!