How I met the owner of It's A Grind

After a deep deep nap in the late afternoon, and inspired by a "new merchandise" email I rec'd yesterday, I dragged myself out of bed and down to the pathetic Long Beach Plaza (or whatever it's called now) to visit Nordstrom Rack. Well, I may not know much but I know NONE of that merch made it to Long Beach. I found a couple nice pair of shoes but decided not to buy either. Tried some shorts - hated them all, especially at the "discount" price of $17 (I was expecting $4). Nordstrom... I don't know why you hate fat women so much but I gotta tell you, your selection of plus size merch is truly scary.

On a lark, I then wandered next door to Ross (who did I just made very happy)?? The store was noticeably short on merchandise and smelled of ant spray. A looooong time later, I had found 1 dress that didn't really fit but I liked as a kind of modern shirt (might look cute with some spanx. or i might be fooling myself) and "had" to buy cause it said it was size 16 regular, when I'm actually a 20W. I also found it in 16W, which technically fit better (and, unlike the 16, had all of it's original beadwork) but I liked the overall effect of the 16 reg better. While checking out, I found a "little black dress", in 16W (ooops... just learned it was mismarked, it's actually also a 16 regular), by the same brand and snagged it without a try on. Bought them both ($20 and $18, respectively). Tried on the black dress and home (after discovering that I'd left the house with the back door wide open - thankfully it doesn't face a street or alley) and it's gonna be a stretch to make it work. Definitely needs a girdle (or whatever they call the modern version of those). I should probably exchange it but at $18, it's not worth the effort. I'll keep it to wear to some place dark (where my fat rolls will blend into the night).

After shopping, I took off for home, rather disappointed with my evening. I spied a new It's A Grind coffeehouse so I decided to stop (since I was planning to drive to the one in Signal Hill anyway).

About 10 min after I got in there, "Maria" walked in and settled herself at my table. What a joy this woman is! Kind of nutty - but in a way that's so appealing that, if it were my store, I'd give her free coffee & food just to get her in there every day and engaging customers.

I suspect she's homeless, or partially so. It was hard to tell. She was clean cut & washed but hauling a lot of luggage. She insisted that she's a film maker from Brazil, having just arrived in America at 2:15am, and here to film random beach scenes for music videos (or close ups of flowers - depending on when we talked), and that the luggage contains her camera and special film. And she's gonna make me a star.

She's 77. I would have guessed mid/late 50s. She has a glass eye that she got in Sweden. She's getting lasik in her other eye. She cried tears of joy when her plane arrived in America. She sells short stories, screenplays, and political jokes to KCET, several other channels, and some sort of print media (I missed that part). Her stories changed randomly. Her son (one of several?) is 54. He, or one of them, works at a german bar in Alpine Village. Or maybe he runs a karaoke store in Santa Monica. Or he helps her cross-breed orchids. She's a horticulturist, anthropologist, and bunch of other stuff I forgot. Mostly, she's just fun and a joy to talk with! She kept me entertained long past the time my parking meter had expired (no ticket so it must have been destiny).

She sang me a lot of big band songs and invited me to some german bar for big band music on Monday night. I gave her my real cell phone number! Despite promising Miss Scotch that I wouldn't show anyone the pics of her in her wedding dress, I showed one to Maria. She thought Scotch was beautiful and wished her a happy wedding.

I'm supposed to tell you that Maria the owner of the coffee shop (thus why she posed with the coffee) and I never have to pay for drinks again. So... she's the owner of the coffee shop. Okay?

She was a random encounter who completely made my night!