Cinematic moment narrowly averted

A few days ago, my manager switched out the Shrek 3 soundtrack for the Beatles' Love album in our queue of 5 overhead play CDs. On the one hand, the Love album is almost a year old, and thus cycling it through the store's speakers isn't necessarily gonna encourage people to buy it. On the other hand, if you're coming into my Borders looking for a CD, you're already in the wrong store. And Love is awesome, whereas Fergie singing "Barracuda" gets old real, real quick.

Last night I was shelving in the religion section, in a pretty rotten mood. One of those moods where I'm just slightly annoyed at everyone and, since I had to spend the first two hours of my breakless 5 hour shift on registers, I had already had about enough of smiling customer service. If I recall correctly, at the time I was grumbling to myself about how quickly the Buddhism books had gone from their aesthetically immaculate alphabetization to a jumble of misplacements and inconsiderate stashings.

Then the Beatles started singing "All You Need is Love."

Behind me, over my right shoulder, a girl started singing the chorus. Not quietly, either. In full, joyful voice. And, a moment later, another voice joined in, this one a pleasing tenor. And there was another moment, pregnant with anticipation, in which I was sure that the whole store was going to start singing. Laughing, tears forming and spilling, we'd all join hands and be glad to be human. We'd realize that it's easy to love one another, all it took was the willingness to do so. And we'd sing, probably in perfect harmony, again and again: "All you need is love. All you need is love. All you need is love. Love. Love is all you need."

Instead, the moment passed. The two singers, who had evidently come in together, moved down the aisle and their voices faded, lost in the jumble of a busy Sunday night. And it left me to wonder: how many other voices would it have taken for me to join in the song? How many smiling, loving faces would have had to turn my way before I joined in the celebration as it paraded out the café door, spreading into the night and into the world?

Would I have needed a bag check from a service manager before I left?

Quality Paper #8: 1000 Places to See Before You Die

The title is pretty self-explanatory, don't you think? This book and its cousin, 1000 Places in the USA & Canada to See Before You Die, both by Patricia Schultz, are hopping on and off the bestseller bay like fleas in a Long Beach apartment. On the one hand, it's a pretty cool travel guide outlining the must-see destinations that might otherwise pass you by. On the other hand, it's creepily a part of that odd niche in the market pandering to, encouraging, and encouraged by those who feel like, if they could just check off enough boxes on their to-do list, they could finally be content. As a side note, today we added to the new QP table Eat This!: 1001 Things to Eat Before You Diet. I hate puns, so I didn't laugh loudly at this for several minutes.

So today is July 3rd, 2007. It is officially 59 days until the wedding. I was thinking about this the other day, back in the blissful calm of a full 62 days of planning and prep, and I realized that this kind of anticipation is kind of a new one for me. Part of it, of course, is that I've never gotten married before. That's obvious. But I think an even bigger part is that I've never really counted down the days until something started before. In recent years, I've counted the months and weeks and days until the end of the term or graduation means leaving friends-- the end of an era. There's been the baited breath waiting for an upcoming release: a book, movie, or album that when I was finally basking in its presence, would make the next few weeks sparkle a little more brightly-- the end of anticipation.

And here I am, half-nervously, half-excitedly, half-disbelievingly (I'm multiracial. I'm allowed.) watching the weeks march off my calendar. And it's amazing because what I'm waiting for isn't really the wedding. The wedding's just one day. It's gonna be rad, don't get me wrong. But what it really is is the start of something new-- a new phase of life that I'm completely stoked on entering into with the awesomest guy in the world. I couldn't ask for a better Lewis to my Clark and, luckily, I don't have to. It's kind of neat that I'm not trying to stuff a bunch of "last times" into the next 59 days. I'm not counting down to the end of anything. What I'm really looking forward to is standing at the top of a mountain with my best bud at my side and looking around for a bit, then stepping together in a direction that's ours to discover.

What a lucky duck I am! What a great set of explorers we'll make!

$19.95