Sitting pretty in Oklahoma

Well, all, I'm sitting comfortably in a hotel in Oklahoma. It has free wireless, a thing the sister's computer likes. :-)

I did get all packed, and without too much trouble. We've been eating well, shopping successfully, and driving...not too strenuously. We should make it to Virginia in three more days. And I've got more store-and-restaurant stories. :-)

Grandma heard I wanted cowboy boots and gave me the wherewithal for Christmas. So we've been searching all of New Mexico for a pair. Well, hardly anybody stocks my size. So as we went through Amarillo, Mom and the sister and I stopped at Cavender's Boot City to see what they had. It's a really nice store; a bit expensive, but very cute. The front section has two barber's chairs and a coffee pot, beneath a sign, "Mrs. Pat's Coffee." One hopes the two stay separate! We made our way over to the cowgirls' section, and a red-haired and -bearded guy in a cowboy hat, Brandon by name, came over.

"How are you today?"

"We're fine, thanks. How are you?"

"Aw, not so good."

"It's hard to get started in the morning."

"Yeah, and I'm on Nyquil. Had a terrible time getting up, and I've been here two hours doing inventory, and you're my first customers. What are y'all lookin' for?"

"A pair of boots. Are they arranged by style?"

"Yes, what kind were you looking for? Round-toed, pointy-toed, square-toed?"

"Oh...round or pointy..." and asked if they had my size.

"Well, not much that size. Where are y'all from?"

We told him and discussed its absolute and relative location.

"What brings you out here?"

"College."

"Where do you go to college?"

"Virginia." We named the place. He didn't know it.

"What do you go all the way out there for?? You could go to school in New Mexico! Or Texas!"

"It's a good school!"

"I hope you get scholarships."

"She does."

He told us where he went to college. It was somewhere around there, and he hated it. "I don't think I'm cut out for school, but you've got to have a degree to get a good job." He told us about his present and hoped-for incomes. "What are your majors?"

"Literature and Strategic Intelligence."

That woozled him a bit. "And you're sisters?"

Yup.

"And...you're older." He guessed right! Then he started guessing our ages. He started a bit high and worked his way down. He didn't ask our ages, thereby depriving us of the chance to make repressive remarks about gentlemen. Ah, well. Why is this one of the standard questions? Hi, where are you from, how old are you? It didn't used to be the Done Thing, but now people keep doing it. Rant finished now. Meanwhile, we'd determined that they had precisely two pairs of boots my size. One pair fit. They were black and pointy-toed and extremely normal. The sister goes, "You can be the bad guy. You just need a hat to match." I'm not sure I want to be the bad guy... I'm a terrible bad guy... I just ranked as a "hippie" on the general test on Athallas' blog...but that's not this story. The boots are cute.

Brandon wandered off and came back just as we'd about decided on the boots. So I asked Em to grab me the other--you know, so I could make sure both feet fit--and Brandon goes, "Nope, we only sell those boots one at a time." We laughed. We decided on the shoes. Brandon took them up to the front counter. There was a girl, Ashley, already working up there. Ashley gave him a job and sent him off, and turned to us. "He'll talk your leg off if you let him. He's a mess!"

We liked Ashley and Brandon...

And then at dinner--actually, there was no waiter at dinner. We went to an A&W and sat in the booth-next-to-the-corner-booth--what is that, the penultimate booth? Anyway, the corner booth was full of the high school volleyball team, mostly blonde and uniformly cute. There were also two brothers who turned up, and a dad, who said, "I thought you wanted this to be girls-only!" The younger blonder guy had a T-shirt that said, "Define 'girlfriend.'" It was pretty entertaining sitting there. They were fixing to go to the theater next door.

I think Purcellville needs an A&W so we can hang out there. It looks fun.