A long time

Spent from 11:00-8:00 working. Long shift. I intended to spend a lot of it thinking about something but Christmas people are crazy, didn't have the time or the room. Everyone should shop early and so prevent the rush. Bookstores seem to especially get a lot of customers (far more than clothing shops) around this time of year. Books make good presents. You don't need a size to fit them, just a rough estimation of readability and genre, and away you go. If all else fails take a gift return card. Simple. I looked up everything from extreme sports to Amelia Bedelia to obsure biography's. I love people that bring in a list: author and title - they are beyond human. Had a ripper of a headache by the time I left. Much thanks to Dave, who dropped by to say hello, and to Jess C also (not that she'll read this) - met (rather than just saw) Travis (um, worshipinallnations on gush) and another guy who's name I didn't get, they were off to some 21'st or something and happened to drop by just before I left. Spent a good part of the evening thinking and such, also randomly reading bits from a book I have on third-culture-kids. We are a different breed. No one really gets the whole missionary kid thing unless they've experienced it (well no one has ever really tried to understand that part of me). I find it really strange when I come across things I've forgotten. The fact that we had a housegirl (Elizabeth) and that we had cold showers mostly all the time (as there was no hot water tap, except for certain houses), couldn't drink water out of the tap... In many ways I entirely understand why people don't ask. They don't know what to ask. And it's not as if the conversation is very reciporical - I mean you ask about their 'childhood' and you get the 'same house, same school' or maybe a few moves or significant events. I have an entirely different lifestyle (that I miss sorely from time to time) behind me. Part of me doesn't just want any old person to ask, to pretend to understand what it's like, the majority of people say, "Oh, that's really interesting" like they know what you're talking about, which is 'gag' material, false or just sickeningly bad. I think if I began perhaps to talk about stuff... that it would have to be with someone fairly significant and would take a long time to eventuate. The rest needs to be left to the people I can properly reminicse with.