It is a rare experience for me to actually go to a mall, kind of like Liz Taylor visiting FAO Schwartz .. it does happen but the sighting is so rare that if you blink you miss it.. but like Liz you could never miss me me.. I'd be the tall phat girl as opposed to Liz's 5'1" stature. And goddess help me why I'm using Liz as an example but I'll tie it in at the end.

I had to stop at a local strip mall today which is smaller and more compact than the bigger monstrous ones with anchor stores. This particular stip mall is anchored by Pier One, Barnes and Noble and several other trendy upscale stores. It was supposed to be a quickie visit, in and out, and home. But the object of my stoppage was to meet with the local manager of the B&N after several phone conversations, she agreed to donate a few coverless books to my prison reading program that I've had to really take charge of since the arrest and defrocking of the priest who was heading the program. What they are lacking is good dirty reading material. Trashy novels with heaving bosoms and scantily clad Norsemen or Englishmen or Pirates or (and my favorite) Indians (the whoo whoo kind, not the dot-dot kind). Unfortunately today, my 1 free day, was also the day that a local writer was holding a book signing at, you guessed it. the very same B&N I had to go to. I should have turned around and gone to Whole Foods (another anchor store) but no! I was on a mission. I was determined to help these poor forlorn prison pals a good read before lights out. After hipping my way through what serves as apparently the "Vegas socialite scene" I was able to find a pleasantly plump woman who I immediately tagged as a B&N employee (could have been the name tag, ya think?) and asked for the manager by name. She pointed over to the crowd and said, try over there. I must have rolled my eyes because she said.. it is a book signing you know.. as if I'd never been to one.. or had one.. but I didn't tell her that she was in the presence of the infamous "doc holly" so I hipped my way back over to the gaggle of skinny bitches and watched as they pushed and shoved their way forward.

I finally gave up and went to the discount table where the books are all marked down to 50-75% off and picked out 20.00 worth of books, and proceeded to the check out. Just as the clerk was ready to call "Next" a short suited woman cut in front of everyone and went to the clerk. Obviously she was in charge. I said "Natalie?" at which she turned around and Wallah.. we connected. I left with 2 big boxes of coverless books that I dropped off at Catholic charities (hoping they don't censor them before hand) and went on my merry way..

My thought connection to Liz?? Well today I was watching the news about how its been 10 years since the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. I was wondering what she would be like? Would she have laugh lines, gotten a little plump, changed her hair? We'll never know because she is frozen in time, like Marilyn Monroe, JFK, RFK, Elvis, Jimi, Bruce Lee, John Lennon. They are timeless. Yet here is Liz, the toast of her day, that graced the cover of every magazine, had people camped out of her room constantly even after she'd started to fade. Now she is barely remembered except by those fans like Michael Jackson and others who've kept what she was alive instead of the crumpled shell she is today. Like Zsa Zsa Gabor, she's barely recognizable as the Cat or as Cleopatra. Given this state she is in today with all her friends dying, 2 generations who have no clue to who she is (as any 20something and they'll stare blankly), the pain she suffers both mentally and physically, would she rather be "frozen in time" like Di or the determined and still beautiful shell she is.