I work in a ghost town. Or so it feels. Even though I’m not faculty, my office is in the same area as a bunch of English instructors. It’s summer, and as many people know, if you’re college faculty you work as little as possible during the summer. Hence, the ghost town feel. Every single office door is closed except mine. Even the department secretary is gone today, and so are both of her student workers. My officemate? Gone today as well. I’m starting to wonder if the world ended and I wasn’t notified. Maybe I really am surrounded by ghosts. No seriously, did the world end?

Yesterday, for awhile, the weather around here suggested that it might. Tornado warnings, torrential rain, thunder and lightning. I had to venture out mid-storm to volunteer downtown, but by the time I got home, it had passed and everyone seemed to have survived. To celebrate survival, B and I went for pizza, where we were pleasantly surprised to find out that one of our favorite pizza places considered us ‘regulars’ and even gave us a free drink for being such. Yay for eating out all the time! Eventually you get free stuff.

After pizza we went to the mall to visit a bookstore. However, before we got out of the car, we noticed a couple nearby, tightly embraced in each other’s arms. Fortunately, Brad is just as much of a voyeur* as I am, so he suggested we sit and observe for a minute. We watched discreetly, hiding our faces behind sunglasses and cell phones, as the two lovers cuddled and giggled and locked lips without stop for longer than we could stand to sit there. I guess they got stuck together or something (a mishap with super glue?) because they stayed latched to each for at least the 20 minutes we watched them. It was incredible.

Wait, did I just admit that we had nothing better to do than sit in a car for 20 minutes and stare at a strange couple while they hugged and swayed and made out? We spent more time doing that than we did in the bookstore when we finally went in. I think we were just fascinated by how they kept their arms from cramping up or falling asleep. I told Brad we should hug and see how long we could hold it, but we both knew we’d get antsy after only a few minutes, so we settled for a brief makeout session and moved along.

*I just looked up the actual defintion of that word and found: a person who derives sexual gratification from observing the naked bodies or sexual acts of others, especially from a secret vantage point. Even though I don’t think that accurately describes us normally, it’s pretty appropriate for this occassion.