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Sarah and I dropped off the pug dog and decided to go eat dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. Although it is a Wednesday night it was incredibly busy so we needed to wait around for over an hour. Sarah went to the Pottery Barn where she looked at important home items like $30 baskets made out of dark stained wicker wood as well as lemon fresh potpurri to put in large glass containers. I got bored with the Barn after a few minutes and went off in search of better items.

I must begin by saying that my impressions of the mall were clouded by the fact that I was incredibly hungry. But as I struck out on my own in the mall I searched for stores that catered to men like me. I found nothing of the sort. The entire mall is carefully constructed as a trap for overdressed JAP(Jewish American Princess) teenagers. There isn't a single electronics store, or games emporium. There isn't even an arcade or place where lots of televisions show sporting events like the Celtics game. The best I could do was to go to Borders which is worth a look but I got incredibly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of choice in books knowing that I am halfway through three books that I can't penetrate to the finish.

So I finally figured the only sport worth doing was female teenager watching. This filled me with angst and realization that I was getting old after I had travelled up and down the escalator two or three times. I made one lap of the third floor stores hoping that the store that sold board games was still there but I already knew it had been replaced by an earring store next to the Pea in the Pod store. A couple of the teens looked coyly at me but it was really a humbling experience so I returned to Borders. It would have been far better for people watching if the mall was set-up like a zoo where I could stand behind a one way mirror and munch on animal crackers while looking at the various teen oddities but unfortunately it is a zoo where I am among the herd of animals and can't separate just to watch.

In the check out lane area at Borders I saw a bunch of copies of "Who What Where" for sale. I should have bought one. Who What Where is an invention of a friend of mine, John Doe. He is a great guy and was at Chris S's wedding. He was one of the messiest people I ever met. When he got a hotel room he had to get one just for himself and within an hour his floor was covered with what looked like fruit loops that had been crushed by a series of elephants. The room was so messy that when room service came they left a note explaining that the state of the room was such that they couldn't clean it. Anyways I recommend anyone checks out his brainchild at Pazow (the power of wow).

So I finally gave up on the teenage JAP girls after noticing that the jeans at Urban Outfitters on the top floor of the mall were nothing more than tattered rags. The clothing looked like it was out of the derelicte line of clothing created for the movie Zoolander. It did make me feel better about having torn the cuff of my jeans while catching them on the Harvard bridge a few weeks back in a near freak fatal bicycling accident landing me in the Charles in minus twenty weather. I mostly would have died of embarrassment.

Dinner was good. We had dinner at the bar. The woman next to me could tell I was eavesdropping on the conversation of the people sitting next to me. We watched the Celtics game and I noticed that the only player I still recognize on the team is Paul Pierce. The woman had dark wavy hair in the model of an art deco painting advertising martinis. I mainly saw it from behind but when she turned towards me I could see that she had a beautiful face that was just beginning to age around the eyes. The woman kept looking to me and we got part way through an introduction through glances but never beyond it. She was almost looking for acknowledgment of the conversation she was having with her friends about the man whose birthday it was who hadn't aged but was much heavier than when he was younger. I looked at her hands and they appeared bare of rings so I was wondering what her relationship was to the three people, two men and a woman, that she was dining at the bar with.

I felt like we were trying to break through a layer of Saran wrap surrounding each of our worlds and that we knew it was acceptable to merge worlds for a moment because we were both citizens who ate dinner on bar stools. I sometimes imagine my world in a public setting looking like the cone of silence from Get Smart. Although there are many people around us the only ones that are accessible are me, Sarah, and the bartender.

I was busy chatting with Sarah about how embarrassing it was that we had totally underdressed for dinner last night. I took one last glance at the woman and finally saw a series of rings including the big diamond on her finger. I hadn't seen them before. I paid the check while Sarah was in the bathroom and then I got up with my back turned and then Sarah drove us both home.