This place totally rules.
I don't even buy liquor here, that's the funny part.
I just sit here and pay money to surf the internet,
check my email,
and just listen to customers and people who work here.
This place also had a great selection of cheese
meats
and
(oh, this was a new discovery, and what a discovery it was)
joseph schmidt chocolate.
Heavenly upon heavenliness.
There's this old guy who owns the shop,
who,
upon meeting him,
will usurp any role your biological grandparents have played in your life.
And his wife will do the same.
A girl in her mid to late 20's walked in and bought about 6 bottles of wine.
He refused to allow her to carry them back to her apartment in one trip.
"Ohhh, no, you don't," he said to her stenly, "you're not walking out with all those. You'll hurt your back, or you'll drop them, and then you could hurt someone else."
The girl assured him she was all right, saying she lived a couple of doors down.
"Well, all the more reason to take two trips. I won't sell you the rest of these unless you take two trips." He said
"Really, I'm fine,"The girl sighed.
"No, no, NO" He said, "don't get my angry," he warned her. "You're not hurting yourself right before Christmas."
She called her roommate to help her carry them.
After she left, he he sat down and watched his wife write something down at the counter.
"Your hair is finally getting silver blue, honey." he says to her, "It looks great."
"Silver blue? Reeeally? Oh my," She says, touching her hair. "I had to wait 75 years to get this color."
"Well, it was worth the wait," he says.
I dunno.
I think maybe I really miss my grandparents.
Or my parents.
Or both.
Or maybe I like seeing old married couples
who are just really beautiful to watch.
This reminds me of:
Tuesday, March 25, 2003
I watched from the train window as they approached across the parking lot. Her white-orange hair was like turned leaves, and matched her beige suit and dress shoes. His own hair, though long since turned salt & pepper, was neatly combed down with pomade, looking like he had probably done so for the last 40 or 50 years since boyhood. He wore jeans and sneakers, with a button-up plaid work shirt.
They held hands until he saw her to the train door, then he peered through aviator sunglasses into the train window, smiling, waving, and shuffling his feet until the train finally began to pull away. He took one last glance into the train and turned around.
I know nothing about them, but I don't ever want to forget the look on his face. Young and old at once. How long have they been in love? Where could she be going? It's just a commuter train.
I'll watch for them tomorrow and the next day, but ultimately believe what I want to about them. Living proof of at least one resiliant love? It was sad and happy to behold.
Now I embark on the million other sights of my day.
---
Silver Blue: A Book Of Poetry Inspired By Old People.
"The most inspiring book since Chicken Soup For The Soul!" - The New Yorker
Bendependent [email] said at 9:42 PM 12-19-2003: I love that man. And that lady. I've talked to the lady a few times, but I've never talked to the man. I always look at that guy when I walk by and think "Wow. That old guy owns that liquor store. He's like straight out of the Outsiders."
And it's true. Someone from work told me the other day that his liquor store got robbed, and he chased the robbers out into the street waving a loaded gun and he was standing in the middle of the street waving it and yelling like a madman.
Them and the "key man" who is only open now and then are my favorite people in Adam's Morgan. Well, and Bardia... And the homeless Mexican bandito that sleeps in rat alley in broad daylight and doesn't even move if a car is about to run over his arm. I bought him a coffee once cos he got kicked out of McDonald's even though he had enough money for the coffee.
I don't like the other homeless man that is real scary and wears the same shirt for several months though. I'm pretty sure he's a crack smoking man, that one. One day I had half a burrito and it was raining and I really didn't want it and he walked up in a blanket and asked for money and I forced the half burrito on him even though I could tell he really didn't want it either. I was glad to pawn it off on him though.
That burned midget guy really freaks me out too. The first time I saw him, I had been up for like a day and a half and I was about to take a cab home in the middle of the night and he kinda crept up on me from out of nowhere and asked me for money, and I remember rubbing my eyes and yelling 'AH!" cos he scared the shit out of me. But then I felt bad, cos it must suck to be a burnt E.T. looking homeless black midget with no arms...
...even though he did scare me.
I don't see the Kaz lady much anymore, and I haven't seen the weird lady with the green coat and the big nose and the chin hair who was always milling about every day. I kinda miss her. She kinda looked like Ma Fertelli.
One day me and Ayo (from work) were playing "The Crackhead Olypmics" and we were awarding people medals based on how crackheaded they were. The game ended almost immediately when we saw this lady shitting on the wall behind McDonald's. She looked at us and yelled.
"Don't look at me, motherfucker. Don't look at me. Just keep walking."
I'm really glad I work in this neighborhood. It makes me feel more at home than anywhere else in DC.
marcia [email] said at 4:15 PM 12-20-2003: wow. chased them out with a gun. that's incredible. I have no clue about the homeless people you speak of--except maybe the crackhead guy who freaks me out, as well. he's really big, sometimes has a blanket around his shoulders, and looks like a wild caged animal who isn't in a cage anymore...
you notice people way more than i do.
you're also lucky to be working in adams morgan. i sometimes wonder if i would know more/notice more people in adams morgan is I worked here and lived in virginia, instead of the other way around....
arlington is super boring--except for one super crazy homeless guy who who said to me,
"You like to bump?"
and I just laughed and ignored him,
and then he got really close to me and actually bumped his hip against man, which almost made me lose my balance, and said,
"oh yeah, you like to BUMP, don't ya?"
kara [email] said at 5:04 PM 12-20-2003: I saw this new guy the other day... I was walking to Rite Aid or something and I head someone "singing," it sounded like Cannibal Corpse or something so I figured it was someone I knew joking around. I turned around and it was this black dude screeching to himself really fast verses about who knows what. A guy came up to him, I guess he knew him, but the other guy just kept on going like he didn't see him.
It ruled.
