I am late middle aged. Tail end of the baby boomers. I was born into a Des Moines without shopping malls. I was two when they opened Merle Hay Mall. So for me, malls were shopping for Christmas and birthday gifts, period.
Last night, my older-than-me husband and I went to see The Deathly Hallows part one. Harry Potter-love that guy, love the movies and the video games. We went to Jordan Creek Mall to see this latest offering and it was worth the effort.
However, when we got out, it was about nine o clock and I needed to run to Panera Bread for bread. Needed some stuffing material for the turkey. You know what day is coming up real soon. Anyway, Panera is about 150 feet or so from the movie theater. Felt like more. You have to walk past the beginning of the food court to get there. Also a major entrance to the mall.
What has all this got to do with buying a French miche for my stuffing?
I had to run the Gauntlet of Teenagers to get there. I swear, every teen in the Des Moines area was there last night. And they were all stuffed into that 150 foot walk. And they all had on the same suede leather half boot with fur trim. There were variations in the colors and the lengths up the ankle but all the girls were wearing them. And the ones that weren't, were glaring jealously at the ones who were.
Most of them didn't say excuse me when they pushed past but hey, I remember being sixteen and in a crowd. No time for manners, gotta get to my friends sides or get that boy to notice me. However, I did walk in a relatively straight line when I was that age, something these teens couldn't seem to be able to do.
When I walk through a crowd, which is as infrequently as possible, I anticipate the people in front of me and their moves so I can get through to my destination with as little jostling as possible. That was mission impossible last night. These youngsters danced and twirled and stopped on a dime, changing directions like a cheetah on an African plain.
So we got to Panera with a minimum of bruises and glares. Guess who is behind the counter there. Teens again, a little older than the ones inhabiting the mall and they seemed more tame. That is until another teen walked in. Specifically a teen of the opposite sex.
So I waited my turn, noting the mating behaviors of the girls giggling in the line behind me whenever one of the boys behind the counter would look at them. Then I was next, nice french mise, staring at me from the shelf. The associate(that's what they call the boy teens behind the counter, well the girls too but at my end it was all boy teens) offered to slice it while shooting a smile over my shoulder to the girls behind me.
I took him up on it and ordered some pastries to take home for breakfast. Another boy teen went to get the pastries while chatting with the girl teens behind me.
I had a taste of the French loaf this morning. It is fresh and has a wonderful French bread taste. Yeasty with good color and it will work out wonderfully for my stuffing. The bird will happily accept it you know where. Not really, like a good safe cook, I do my stuffing in a pan, not inside the bird but you get the idea.
I am not mentioning how the pastries tasted this morning. That is because last night, the boy teen offered me a sack and I took him up on it, thinking the pastries were in there with the bread. Au contraire, amid all the mating confusion of the North American teens last night, they forgot to put them in my bag. Didn't find out til this morning cause I went straight to bed last night.
So gonna have em tomorrow morning along with another slice of that lovely French mise.
The moral of this story is to go to Panera at a different location or early morning when the North American teens are still curled up, asleep in their dens, looking ever so cute with their suede low cut boots with fur trim tucked under their little beds.
