People watching

Location: Intelligentsia, Silverlake Ca.
Saturday afternoon, my unsuspecting victim sits next to me...
She is reading a book from one of those Kindle wireless reading devices.
I thought it was funny because I joked about coming here to show off my Macbook, when I became apart of the artsy Apple community (inside joke). I couldn’t help but think she was doing the same thing. “Look at my cool new gadget”, she must have been thinking. She must be here to people watch as much as I am because she keeps looking up and around, becoming easily distracted by the slightest movement from a passerby, completely ignoring Kindle. I was doing the same, only I hadn’t opened my book yet, so it was fine.

A private table I had my eye on opened up so I quickly rushed over and sat down, quickly placing my belongings on the table to mark my territory. She did the same after awhile and now as I sit here typing, she’s still looking around wildly. She put her gadget away and started in with the activity she must have come here for to begin with: filling out cards. Could they be "thank you" notes from a recent wedding? No, she looked too sad to be a newly wed, there are only 6 of them so perhaps it was for an apartment warming or recent graduation, although she has the stench of a college institution still on her. It’s a sort of heir of superiority that comes from the knowledge of books. Antiquated knowledge that can somehow make people think they are superior. Oh look at her! She pulled out her Kindle again which caught her neighbor’s eye and they are now engaging in conversation about it. She’s probably so pleased, gloating even, as she goes on and on about it, telling him more than he anticipated. I don’t know why I’m focused on this girl. Perhaps because somehow we may be one in the same. She has taken center stage now though as I sit on the sidelines and write about her. Hymph! Sort of like Fight Club when Ed Norton’s character discovers that Marla Singer is a phony at the support groups, completey sabotaging his experience. He finds that he can’t cry if she’s there. Perhaps I can’t show off my MacBook in peace with her sitting there blatantly showing off her Kindle. Shortly after the interested party shows no more interest in her machine, she gets up and leaves. She’s now satisfied, she’s gone now. And so am I.