I'm a city skool liberrian so I have some time off in the summer. Time off lets me do constructive things like... uh, drink more and eat nachos and buy crap when I'm not broke from paying bills. Malls make me itch so I like to go to smaller, independently owned places when I can, though I don't limit myself.

Soma's Nest is on the Highland strip, like 2 doors down from Newby's. I went in last week. Plan to go back after I get paid. The owner was nice/cool and nothing in there was overpriced and she had some cool shit, though it's all girly stuff. A bit like Maggie's Pharm (which I also like), only more open and with fancy scarves and more jewelry.

What are some places to go for cool shit?

I feel like saying shit a lot today.

Check out that Crazy-Beautiful spot over between Garibaldi's and the Burrito joint. Some new spots in CY. etc.

Mid Town Artist Market has some really cool stuff and it's got the right price.....on Madison across from the dairy.
I was in there for a art opening a few weeks ago and it's a cool place.
The bookstore next door has some great books at really good prices too.

O yeah... I did some directory updating for a local company here last summer. I'd call businesses and just ask if their address/phone/etc was still the same. Wasn't telepimping. Anyway I made sure to keep a mental note of which places were rude and which were nice. I don't blame people for not being thrilled to talk to me (tho it only took 30 seconds max) but still no excuse for being an asshole. For what it's worth, I'm much nicer to telemarketers now. Main thing though, I have NO tolerance for rude-ass people in stores. I can deal with someone having a shitty day or whatever, but don't treat me like shit just for walking in the door.

Book Traders on Qunice-- NICE
Bohemian Bazaar on Madison -- NICE
Borders -- NICE
Germantown Country Club -- Assholes. Figures.

Actually the worst place I ever called was Vintage Mania, which I know is now closed. I thought they'd be cool... 'cause, well, vintage is cool. Wrong. The guy on the phone was super paranoid, being an ass and not wanting to give the address out (guess he didn't want people to know where they were?). I managed to wrangle the address out of him when I said I already knew it and was just confirming it from last year. He said "well that's all I can tell you then!" and hung up. Fucktard. I was glad to hear they closed. I heard some other people say they were real dicks when you went in the store... they'd act like you were annoying them just by coming in.

vintage mania was great for us... they were always closed.

so people would come over and at least know that we existed.