The annoying people that sit next to me

"This neighborhood has really lost its character," said B, to which I replied "yeah, it is a shame;" While I'm thinking that I actually moved to this neighborhood to be surrounded by snobby foodies that love Whole Foods, farmers markets, Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Lululemon, and Barnes and Noble. Did I mention Williams Sonoma? Ahhh I love my neighborhood... Being surrounded by these people, like myself, is usually ok when I have my headphones on or when I'm running past them in groups walking four wide (how rude is that? unless I'm doing it.)

Unfortunately this time I was at the pool trying to read, when a tall white dude and a short white chick sat next to me. When they began applying their sunscreen to their uber pale bodies, the dude commented on how he received this email about how an ingredient in sunscreen is actually worse for your skin than not wearing sunscreen. (I wonder if that Nigerian prince will ever get back to him...) My super health instinct kicks in, and I grab my sunscreen only to see that Banana Boat is actually trying to poison me, which I don't entirely mind because it was on sale. Anyway, the ingredient on trial is Retinyl Palmitate, which is also an ingredient in anti-aging and anti-acne creams. Since I put this on my skin anyway, I figured that some rat slathered in the cream (at what percentage and over how long??) having a statistically significant raise in tumor growth wasn't scary enough for me to pay $20 for sunscreen. These two (who I assume are together despite the vast difference in dating class) berate their friends for using bad ingredients on their skin... I wanted to put my zinc oxide based sunscreen in his (and her) eyes.

I quickly got over this conversation until they continued talking (loudly for sitting one foot away from one another.) The conversation moved onto omega fatty acids and how the uber white girl cooks artichokes and then drinks the water the artichokes were cooked in.. obviously, she says.. I assume she also eats the artichokes?? But then again, who knows. It's times like this where I wish I was more confrontational (stop laughing!) The girl obviously never works out (ditto for the dude), so I can only assume that the warnings for heart disease didn't have the same effect as lab rats covered in toxic tumor cream. I think if someone wrote a study saying that eating whale fat decreases our risk of cancer, this chick/dude would drop their angst over the cruelty and extinction risks that accompany Japanese (and Icelandic?) whaling.

Anyway, moral of the story, the earphones are staying in at the pool from now on.....