A day to NOT

The most interesting thing happened this evening....

I've been doing two jobs lately, which wouldn't be so bad except that they're 200+ miles apart and neither is where I spend my weekends.  But that's nobody's fault but mine.

Regardless, it has been quite the week of criss-crossing North and South Carolina for various big work "things".  I should really give up one of these two things but the problem at this point isn't with handling both of them because I can do this.  It's with the logistics of it all.  Anyways...

Back to the story....  So, I drove 150 miles to get to work this morning and just over 100 to get from there to Charleston afterwards.  By the time I got here I was tired, I was ready for the weekend, and so I went to one of my favorite local places for a bite of dinner and a beverage.

The place that I go is a nice nice restaurant.  I've eaten there dozens of times, but I typically can't afford the entrees so I'll have lighter fare at the nice bar up front.  I know the bartenders.  I know the hostesses.  I know the waiters.  It's almost like extended family, in a way, which is one of the reasons Charleston has become so "comfortable" for me.

So, it's a Friday night and I go in and the bar area is very full.  One of the hostesses tells me that a seat is going to free up in a second an it does, right at the corner of the bar.  So I sit down, do some catching up with the bartenders, I order a drink and something to eat, and I'm thoroughly relaxing and enjoying myself after this crazy week.

There are lots of very pretty and handsome, well-dressed, men and women at the bar waiting for their tables.  I used to go in after wrestling practice, on Tuesdays, for a burger and I would have felt really really under-dressed except that they said it was fine.  Which it was.  But typically, a weekend night at that bar is a good place to watch people.  I'm usually too busy eating or chatting to pay it much notice, but it's true.

As I was finishing my meal a young woman came up to me and asked me if she could ask me something that might be personal.  This is typically not a good sign, because you never know what someone is going to ask....especially if you say it's ok.  Anyway, I tell her to ask what's on her mind and, of all things, she asked me if I was there alone.

I told her I was...that I live nearby and I enjoy coming there for dinner.  She seemed genuinely surprised, and somewhat impressed, that a woman would go to a restaurant/bar for dinner alone without any interest in anything but relaxing.  I never even stopped to consider it as anything but ordinary.  But that opened the door for a very pleasant conversation and I realized I was impressed that she had the courage not notice and approach me in the first place.

She has a very kind face, and a warm way about her, and it was easy to chat.  And after ten or fifteen minutes she and her dinner friend got seated for their meal and I go ready to come home, unpack a little, wash up, and get into bed.  Which is where I am now....

We chatted about how Serendipity works - I think she used the term "Serendipitous Circumstance".  Anyways - it was a very pleasant way to wind down the day.  And, oddly, I suspect we'll chat again.

Tomorrow is the first time in week I don't have to be up at 5am or earlier to get somewhere.  It's the first day I don't have 200 miles or more to drive from where I needed to be earlier to where I need to be later.  I'm not really complaining about any of what has happened this week because it actually all seemed to work fine, and it seems like over-abundance more than anything.  It's just nice to have a day to NOT.

Let the weekend begin!