"May I help you?" bit the dust.

"I only work three days a week because I’m in school."

"Oh, what are you going o school for?"

"Finishing my degree. The only reason I’m going back to school, after dropping out 20 years ago, is I wanna start my own business. I want a store front and I think I need to finish High School first."

She looks despondent, more interested in conversing with the passerbyers than actually working. "How’re you, Honey?" she asks. "Where are the kids?" "What’s going on with your horse?" Obviously she's been employed here for quite some time.

"That guy you just saw," she tells me in a hushed tone, " is my boss. He used ta be really thin. He got diabetes and when I clean up around his desk, I find thousands of candy wrappers. He eats sugar like its going outta style."

Another woman approaches her, just as husky and complacent, whom I assume is a co-worker. They blab-on, gossiping and giggling like preschoolers, not paying one bit of attention to their work. People saunter by, grabbing whatever they want from the demo table, hoarding candy and chips in their pockets for a late night snack. No one bats an eye (save me, incredulous, from across the aisle.)

Here’s the future of entrepreneurship, standing, hands on hips, yammering with the friend BUT NOT the customers. They're blathering about other people and their families, the local dirt that got them into trouble, who’s slept with whom, who’s kid got booted from school and must be dealing drugs, and the like. I can already imagine the infamous future storefront baring a 70% off sign, and declaring CLOSING SOON!!

If she even gets that far.

In the meantime, I salute her for getting dressed in the morning and doing her best.

It’s all we can ask.

#SelfImprovement