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Being summertime, it is the perfect time to get myself a few magazines. You know, so I can scan through them on the sunny days when I have a few minutes of relaxation and I’m not really into the mood to crack open a novel, which I know I will get completely absorbed in. My favorite things about magazines are that they’re glossy, they have lots of nice photographs, and I can see what the fashionably rich girls wear. Magazines are blend of art, creativity and what I will call “pop-literature.” They’re visually and mentally entertaining at the same time.
So on my lunch break between the gusting showers of rain and the ominous cloud cover, I sit down on a bench in the park. I don’t sit right in the middle of the bench, but I sit a little bit to the left of the middle. After I pull out, my Cosmopolitan magazine, two older ladies sit next to me on the bench. I look over thinking “are you really going to sit here this close to me?” Being Canadian, I’m used the people choosing a different bench or sitting as far away from the other person as possible. I picked up my purse and scooted to the left to give myself more space. I looked down at my Cosmo magazine and thought: “Hmm, maybe I shouldn’t be open to this page with a photo of a nearly naked man and woman together?” I looked at the two ladies out of the corner of my eye. They were chatting away in Chinese like two birds in spring. The lady sitting closest to me was drinking tea out of a thermos. They didn’t even notice I was there. So I continued to read smiling to myself due to the unlikely somewhat awkward situation.
As I customarily read Cosmo from cover to cover, I was on my lunch break the next day and I decided to be smarter and sit on the concrete ring around the fountain so that no one will impose on my space. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw two people. I looked up and saw a groom and his new bride getting their photo taken in front of the fountain. Now I can’t blame them, because the fountain is impressive. I politely moved down around the circle.
The combination of the fact that I can’t read Cosmo in the lunchroom at work, and when I go outside there is the unpredictable rain, old Chinese ladies choosing to sit right next to me, and the married couple’s wedding photo shoot, made me start to think that Cosmo is bedside reading material.
