I recently found myself at Frys in Wilsonville. One theory is that bachelors have to go to Frys every few days or weeks, at most, to recharge their status as bachelors and that anyone that wants to maintain their geek credentials, boy or girl, are subject to the same irresistible draw (and the hollow promise of decent prices on name brand merchandise) as are bachelors.

I’m perusing the cameras when a young’ish porcelain skinned brunette approaches me and asks if i need help. She’s sporting a tight blood red skirt and although she doesn’t have large hips, per se, they are slightly larger than what her frame might suggest and her skirt perfectly accentuates them. Her blouse is a gunmetal gray and both contour and fit against her figure with all the tightness of a well rehearsed jazz quartet. Her ass is slightly larger than what you would expect of a figure like hers and i don’t even try to hide the fact that i’m stealing glances at it when possible.

But dig this- she’s incredibly helpful. The last time i had a discussion with any of the Frys monkeys about an electronic device, the woman had precisely ZERO information that could have been mistaken for help. But this woman is also incredibly nice- even after having her bring me three different models of cameras (she has to walk to the back of the store each time, which is a beautiful thing to behold but she’s working on commission and i’m not going to make her much money). But she never loses her composure with me and i appreciate it. If i decide to buy another television soon, i’ll be sure to remember her.

She finds a model of camera that i really, really like. The Nikon S6300. She has it in silver and red and she asks which color i prefer.

“Red- in honor of your skirt,” the words just come out of me, unrehearsed. She smiles and leaves me one last time to fetch it from the back.

As she’s filling out the paperwork for me through a terminal (customers have to take a voucher to the front to pick up the item at the register), i look around at the two dozen or more televisions. Each of them are blaring these color intense movies such as UP, Despicable Me and Avatar. I don’t know if my sanity would endure.

“Don’t you get tired of seeing the same things over and over, all day long?” i ask.

She explains that the movies get rotated and the loops get changed on a fairly regular basis. “And i love Despicable Me,” she adds.

“I’ve never seen it.”

She looks away from her terminal for a moment, at me and says, “I didn’t see it for a long time because I thought it looked stupid. Then my brother dragged me to see it and I laughed my ass off.”

She returns to her terminal and I deliberately lean over her a bit, staring down at the back of her skirt. She doesn’t take her eyes off of her terminal but i’m standing so close to her that she can’t help but to see my gesture. I calmly her, “That is debatable.” And i just let the words hang there.

There’s a couple, perhaps three seconds where she keeps entering in the information for my camera. She’s heard what i said but doesn’t get what i meant- and then it hits her. She doesn’t look up nor at me but she grins uncontrollably and blushes a little bit too which makes me happy.

Some of my inhibitions and reservations are diminished these days if not entirely gone. I have found that the filter between my desires and my mouth (or if typing, my hands) no longer restrains me as it did even a few months ago. In its benign form, i can be flirtatious, silly and playful. In its other manifestation, which is more cathartic, i am unrestrained in my thoughts and have no reservations in speaking my mind. My usual levels of empathy and diplomacy are diminished if not abandoned. In both cases, i am uninhibited in my honesty.

Previously i would have been too self-conscious of the fact that this woman is probably in her mid to late twenties and i am… i am not. Now, i just don’t care. Life is too short to not give a compliment where one is due… even if it’s the sort of compliment that made her squirm and blush a little bit. Maybe even especially if it’s the sort of compliment that made her squirm and blush a little bit.

When the time comes for me to buy a new television, maybe i can get her to walk to the back of the store to bring me five or six models before i decide on one.