This is kind of strange, honestly. The internet part. I'm all for meeting people online (hell, my girlfriend and I first met online). But I guess posting that you have a crush on somebody and leaving a contact email (which is made anonymous through the site), you'd THINK they'd just take the initiative and talk to me, if not tell me directly. Whoever it was, they weren't a regular, that much was clear from the message itself. I know there are a few guys who have a crush on me who come in. They talk differently than others, not in a condescending way, just in a way that I know they're crushing. I'm pretty sure that they didn't write the entry since I'm pretty sure they know I'm gay...

Jake had been sent the link by a friend of his, who wrote "She probably would want to know about this." Which I did. Bill and I thought it was this creepy guy who came in a few weeks before, who just kept looking at me funny (literally...he had his head cocked to the right), and mumbled quite a bit. When Bill came up and saw the guy, he was about to head out to get some food. He'd stopped to make sure the guy didn't try anything, that was how strong the creepy vibe was. The guy mumbled more and left. With more distance between that and the online thing, I tend to think it's not him. He never came back to the shop.

Some of the customers also stumbled across the ad page. I think what's stranger than the ad itself is when people ASKED me about the ad. Just kind of "So, you've got an admirer, huh?" So, I got some crap for it for awhile; from both co-workers and customers. I never did find out who this person was.

Tale #7 ~ Goodbye, Mr. Parker

I wrote this a few months ago when it all happened, but I wanted to post it here as well. There can be many jerks that come to the store, but there are even more good people who are just there to feed their addictions; I just rarely talk about them because their stories just aren't as funny. This one is about one of those good people; however, it is a sad story.

One of the first regular customers that really talked to me was Daniel Parker, a man in his late 50s to early 60s. He was someone who you could tell loved to talk, and it wasn't long before he knew my last name was also Parker. For the first several months, I would actually see him pretty regularly. He would come into the store and say "Hello, Ms. Parker" with a smile and I would grin and say "Hello, Mr. Parker". From time to time, he'd also call me his "namesake" as a joke. After awhile, I didn't see him too often as he would come in on Thursday mornings and I don't usually work then.

The last time I saw him was Free Comic Book Day in May. The store was packed with people and he was in a hurry. He grabbed his bag of things, made a little small talk, but had to go. He hadn't been feeling well for awhile, I guess he picked up pneumonia sometime before and was having a hell of a time getting past it.

Today when I walked into the store, Bill, the manager, stopped me and asked me if I knew a particular customer. I vaguely remembered his name, but couldn't place the face. Apparently he was the nephew-in-law of Daniel Parker. Last weekend, Daniel went in to see why it was taking so long to get over pneumonia and found out he had cancer. The doctor told him he had two to four months to live.

Donald Parker died two days later. I didn't know him very well, but he was a nice guy, funny, and one of the first to actually respect me as a comic fan, rather than seeing me as "the girl". What's weird, is the day he died I thought of him out of the blue. Nothing I was doing actually reminded me of him, I just suddenly thought of him saying to me "Hello, Ms. Parker."

So, for the last time,

Goodbye, Mr. Parker.