Gift Shops

I love the little shops they have in museums and places. They’re the best thing in the whole world. Every time I go into a new place I look and see if there are any little shops. Most times my efforts go unrewarded. The disappointment I feel walking to my classes with the knowledge that there is no little shop in Bridge or Linde is immense and uncalculable. Sometimes however, I get to feel the elation of walking into a new building and finding a little shop. Meatman is my favorite building on campus, not because of the free food available until 2 in the morning, but because of the little shop. I love looking at all the tiny little branded merch thats way overpriced and I would never buy. I get such a rush of joy looking at 20 dollar pens and 30 dollar notebooks that I can’t imagine anyone actually using. I love museums, not because of the art or science inside, which frankly I couldn’t care less about, but because they always have a little shop. I see it on my way in then for my whole visit I just fantasize about the little shop. Maybe they’ll have tiny little prints of the art or 30 dollar tiny soaps that have nothing to do with the content of the museum. And then at last, at the end of my visit my patience is rewarded and I can go look at the little shop. Its like heaven, they have tiny little trinkets and fun candles and overpriced everything. Sometimes they have little stuffed animals sitting in a tree shaped thing and thats amazing. Or even better, they’ll have a tray of shiny little rocks I can look at. If someone ever wanted to trap me, they could just set up a fake little shop somewhere and I would walk right in. I could walk into the lounge one day and see a little shop and not question it at all. I would walk right in and immediately be trapped by the giant cage hanging over the door. More buildings need to have little shops. Maybe if all the buildings on campus had little shops I would go to lecture more. Caltech needs more little shops.