Alfred Hitchcock freaked me out as a child. I can remember KTLA running commercials for their Hitchcock Marathons and showing clips that were mesmerizing and terrifying at the same time. Children running from attacking birds, Janet Leigh being stabbed by a disembodied arm. I still won't take a shower in the house alone!
Saturday a friend and I took our children to the beach (the husbands were working). When we got hungry, we bought two orders of milkshakes, fish and chips to share. My daughter was having too much fun dragging seaweed onto the beach to stop and eat her food, so I left the box sitting by my hip on the blanket.
I noticed a seagull staring at me. I would turn and talk to my friend, and the next time I looked up, the seagull would be closer. He was creeping me out. I took a picture with my phone and sent it to my husband.
The next time I turned away, I heard a rustling of feathers, felt the box jerk away. I looked up and that crazy seagull had tried to fly away with my box of food. He got about six feet from me before everything spilled out. A hundred birds instantly swarmed us, devouring the food in less than a minute. I don't even know where they came from. I barely had time to scream!
The weird thing was, after they were done eating, the birds stayed there staring at me. No amount of yelling, shooing or flapping would make them leave. So with visions of Hitchcock running through our heads, we left.
New rule for beach food: if you aren't eating it, cover it, or suffer the consequences. I learned the hard way.
On another, far less disturbing note, May is National Independent Bookseller's Month. I wrote an article about Solvang's independent book store, The Book Loft, that is posted on the Shrinking Violet's website. Get out there and support your local indies by buying lots of books from them. (The new Percy Jackson comes out tomorrow so I'll be at The Book Loft for my copy!)
