a new contraceptive

The count is now three for the number of songs on Garrett's "Etc" compilation that have wandered their way onto network television commercials. It's bizarre.

And the show Jack and Bobby...yes it's good...but I can also see why it's so highly rated by the (liberal) reviewers.

And dude, I'm now hooked on Smallville. I'm an incurable comic book/sci-fi freak. (Not that I've read any of the actual comic books...much to my chagrin...but my dad has and he's spent my entire life filling me in.)

So yesterday totally sucked...there was a little demon bat boy from hell visiting Ann Taylor with his overindulgent, high maintenance mother. He climbed all over all our fixtures (nearly pulling one down onto himself, which he is free to do anywhere I'm not liable), ran his sticky little hands over all our clothes, and followed Ashleigh around the store smacking her butt while she tried to assist his mother in picking out a coat. (This kid is like four, by the way.) The only attention he got from his mother was an offhand "Ethan...no no..." or, more often, "Ethan...Ethan where are you?" in a tone of panic when she (quickly) lost track of his whereabouts.

Blame the mothers all you want, but I still hate the rotten spawn they drag around in their wakes. This kid was clearly spoiled off his ASS and defiant toward everyone. The bright spot in this episode was a woman whom I'd helped last weekend to find a dress for her to wear to her daughter's wedding. She came in for a price adjustment on the dress and lingered to chat; the hellion monster boy climbed up next to her onto the high, small ledge running across the front of the cash wrap. Daycare Worker Sarah exploded out of me like she hasn't in months, pressed her hand firmly on the counter in front of him and said, "You need to get down now." He glared at me and grunted a sound in the negative. I gave him THE LOOK and said, "Get. Down. Now."

He started to squirm backward but not quickly enough, so the woman who was talking to me put an arm around his waist and neatly plucked him off the counter and put him on the ground. Affronted, he ran off to find his mama, who was all the way across the store and had missed the fact that her horrible child had just been disciplined by two complete strangers. My client looked at me and said in disgust, "My kids would never have gotten away with that." I laughed and said I was reassured that she didn't think I was out of line for reprimanding him. She said indignantly, "Of course not!"

So evilboy took it upon himself to stalk me all over the store. I don't know what he thought he was up to, but he didn't smack my butt. In fact, he stayed a good three feet away from me the rest of the time he was in the store. Fortunately the duration of the visit wasn't too long.

My manager-and-friend Jen at Gymboree told me the werewolf wonder and his mother came into her store shortly afterward. She spent some time ranting about his behavior (he had bolted into the back room and when she told him to leave, he sneered, "I don't have to listen to you" to which she responded, "Oh yes you do. Get out.") and about his mother's tossed-out "Ethan...no no"s.

We laughed about the irony of my wanting a family and then encountering this piece of work. Jen looked around the messed-up store and said drily, "Ethan is good birth control."