I was quite nervous, waiting for Angela at the mall's food court. It's all that space, and all those people milling around. I kept thinking someone should have been filming me, those 20 minutes on a bench, and used it as lecturing material in a psychology class, when on the chapter of stress management. "And there, note how the subject moved slightly more to the edge of the seat, and wrinkled her forehead briefly. It's obvious she's pondering standing up and fleeing right this minute."

A boy introduced himself, and said I looked like a nice person. He then tried to sell me some subscription, but I abruptly stopped him before he wasted too much breath. "See these hair roots? They mean I'm broke and can't redye them." I thought he'd leave after hearing I couldn't afford it, but he actually stayed for a few minutes and chatted. Weird.

Hehe, I think it's funny to realize how different people think of things. For me, it seems perfectly natural to say to people "I met him/her on the internet", but I would feel completely embarrassed at having to tell any future grandkids "we met at the mall". Hah.

Suddenly, I turned my head, and ZOOM... Angela, walking towards me, with a stroller and Garrett. What followed was just a very good time. We ate at the food court, but not that rushed kind of thing where your goal is to leave as fast as possible. Instead, we simply talked, and talked, and ate, and interracted with Garrett. It was very nice not to feel stressed, and equally nice to just.. have company.

I was surprised at how similar we were on many points. I think we both move around many talk topics the same kind of instant way, neither is afraid to interrupt the other, and neither gets grossed out about talking while eating ;) It was just.. nice to not feel like I was talking her ears off.

After food, we strolled around in the mall a while, still talking, though also a bit more pre occupied, as Garrett started to roam about, hehe. My heart just melted as he all of a sudden looked at me, and stretched out his hand, demanding mine to hold as we walked. I guess it's just nice when someone, regardless of age, decides that hey, they can stand you. :)

After we left the mall, we went to Toys R' Us, and even though Angela suspected it'd be heart breaking, as Garrett has a tendency to.. well, not want to leave (understandable!!), it actually was quite nice. Well, apart from the time when she went to change his diaper and it turned out it had leaked, so she had to go buy a new set of clothes, but that was more a mishap, and actually, I had quite fun watching him in the restroom as she went clothes hunting. He had me dispense toilet paper pieces to him, and he would rip off a smaller piece and throw it into the trash can, saying "Trash!". CUUUTE!

As we got out, we went over to the larger plastic section, where they had slides, and after discussing and comparing pro's and con's with Angela, she actually bought him a plastic slide. Go Garrett!

After leading him out, struggling to obstruct his view so he wouldn't see the toy cars and bikes, I kept tempting him that when we got to the car, there would be "cooookies, coookie, car, coookie, Garrett, cookie!" It worked. We got the slide into the car, and Angela drove me home. *sigh* 'twas nice.

A guy wanted to interview me for one of his projects in a class. I asked if it would be off camera, because I saw he was carrying one, and he said no. Hence, I declined, and he seemed very puzzled, and couldn't understand at all what my problem was. To get him to shut up, I simply said "Look, I have a phobia about it, okay?" He didn't seem to understand, but I got him off my back. Heh.