Shopping

Borias isn't all that thrilled with shopping, being a male after all. I think he must find the whole activity both boring and pointless. Wandering around a brightly lit place, staring at clothing and whatnot. I'm personally not into shopping much, either, but now and then the mood strikes me, and I head to the mall. Fashion Valley is an upscale mall, where there's a Cheesecake Factory (yum!), and movie theaters. So I can do more than shop. 

It's interesting the kinds of encounters that I can have with people during a shopping trip. I had just gone into Bloomingdale's, looking at some sunglasses, and the sales gal came over. So I made a comment about these Ray-Bans looking kind of funny, an odd shape. She never looked at me, but was marveling at Borias. She just started asking me about him. 

I said  it's funny how sometimes people don't hear a thing I'm saying, and just see the dog. She laughed, but not in a way that recognized what I had just said. She was still too busy looking at my dog. It was a token laugh. She didn't get it. 

Then there's some parents who are just really, really strange. There was this middle aged man with two young toddler aged boys, who came into the Gap with them while I was engaged with a sales clerk, and was  saying "you want to pet the dog, let's ask if you can pet the dog", only it wasn't directly to me. Just loudly saying it. I just moved a bit, avoiding them. Not to be rude, but I was talking and kind of busy, and didn't want the distraction at the moment. Well, ran into Mr. Dad again coming off an elevator towards the movie theaters on the second level. 

He was standing right in the way, little boy by his side, and a woman (mom?). Boy starts to cry and buries his face in dad as Borias goes to get off the elevator. I try to go with him, but they don't move, blocking my exit. So I say excuse me. 

Dad says "your dog's gonna bite my kid's face off".

HUH???? 

I said how absurd, he's my Service dog, not a vicious kid killer. 

"Well, my kid's afraid of him!"

I could see that he was mildly wigged out, but that's not my problem, I only wanted to go off the elevator. I had gotten past him, and said, indignant, that I had only said excuse me. Apparently he thought I was mocking his kid's crying or something. I shrugged and we went on to go see Wolverine. Seriously, parents can really be strange. 

Another little Asian boy followed us around in a department store, waving his arms, barking at Borias, and generally being hyper. Parents were jewelry shopping, engaged with the clerk, oblivious. When he started roaring at my dog, I had had enough, and said "Please stop. I'm not here for your entertainment!"

A woman going up the escalator gave me a thumbs up in approval. The kid gave me kind of a blank look, as if not many adults told him to knock it off before. 

It does seem more and more that people treat us as if we are there for their entertainment. It just gets a bit tiresome when the folks are rude, or obnoxious. Thankfully I have lots of cool interactions to make up for those. People that get a kick out of Borias' antics. 

Like he entertains himself while I wheel around in a store by doing a little mini-dance. I don't let him full out bounce and act the fool of course. But he still likes to get away with some playfullness. So he will hold his leash and shake his head walking in a prancy way. Gets a giggle out of the clerks. If there's loud music playing, he'll try to boogie a little more. My dancing fool. 

We both enjoyed Wolverine very much. Though Borias slept through most of it ha ha. I tried to get him to watch the trailer for Ice Age 2, with the animated squirrel things. He watched a while, then looked up at me, and turned around to go to sleep.