In which it’s arrived. Winter. It’s totally here.
The weather’s turned, and the town’s slick with ice and snow. It’s doing a half snow/half rain thing right now, no wind, the flakes falling straight down and hitting the ground with an eerie and surrounding shhhrrrr sound.
I went to the grocery store with AmmZon earlier, and it took a long time to de-ice her car. The parking lot at the grocery store was slushy and slippery when we walked across it.
I’ve got the jeep running right now. It’ll probably take ten minutes or more before it’s de-iced enough for me to drive up to the bar so I can have a few smokes inside, where it’s warm. I’ll take a book, of course, and drunk people will give me shit about it, saying clever things like, “What’re ya doin’?!” and “I can’t believe you can read in here!”
I think I should get props for not replying, “It’s called reading, you imbecile,” or “It would be much easier if you’d shut the fuck up and leave me alone.”
Sometimes drunk people want me to tell them what the book I’m reading is about. Once in awhile, I actually do, and because I tend to read hard sci-fi I launch immediately into descriptions of particle physics and watch their eyes glaze over. That teaches ’em. Heh.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
Oh, I am SO the first comment on this. Sweet!
I remember getting pissed off by people who’d come up to me in bars etc. while I was just sitting there reading, mainly because one guy had the audacity to accuse me of bringing a book to a bar so that I’d get more attention. Weirdly enough, he didn’t like it when I pointed out that he was doing the same thing with the jeans that were tattered enough for the entire universe to be his proctologist.
I should start an International “I read in bars” web site, where readers could post the dumb things people say to them. -m
I like Sin’s comment. 🙂
I once brought my notebook to a bar to write…because what better place to find awesome subject matter! People wanted me to leave…I think I made them nervous. This of course, only made it more enjoyable.
I’d be afraid to take a laptop into the bars around here. Drunks might break it. I mean, they manage to fall off of chairs pretty frequently! -m
Most people in a bar, I would think, interrupt you because their tiny brains can’t abide the fact you are more interested in a book then in them. Sadly, even a rock is generally far more interesting then that hairless monkey squawking over you.
What I like to do to readers, is say something like, “Oh, I see you can read. That’s pretty unusal for this bar and makes you slightly more interesting then a gum wrapper. I like books with lots of pictures. You?”.
Ah, yes, lots of fun…
If someone said, “I see you can read,” I’d probably just get up and leave. OF COURSE I CAN READ!!! -m
Then you would miss someone obviously interesting. It’s pointing out the obvious that makes for comedy. Besides, there were more words there, after ‘I see you can read’. But obviously, your closed mind can’t see them lubricating the hinges. Sad really.
Dude, shut UP. I’m reading. *chuckle* -m