Mid-January

It's Saturday morning in the middle of January. It's still dark out and I'm still in bed. The weather has been so nice recently that I'm calling it first false spring - it's too early in the year so there's bound to be more bitter cold, but it's currently been warm enough that it feels like the worst is behind us. (Second false spring is in March followed by actual spring in April.) I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself today. The dishes are clean, there's no farmers' market, and I don't feel much like shopping. So, for now, I'll write these two stories:

Last Saturday night, I went to Famoso for pizza. They were pretty dead. There was one family, one of the two servers brother/boyfriend, me and the kitchen staff. My food comes out quickly. While I'm eating, the other server is packing up to go home. By the time I'm done, she is just finishing cashing out and my server is chatting with her. Then is just me and my server and I am her if it's unusually quiet (it is) and from there we chat about a bunch of other things. Eventually another couple come in and there are a few online orders, but we probably talked for an hour. It was delightful. (And no it isn't going anywhere - she has a boyfriend and is still in her early twenties.)

This Thursday, as I was finishing up my normal lunchtime walk, I passed someone and then I hear from behind me, "Where do you work?" I'm not sure who it was directed at, so I turn to look and she was talking to me. I'm a bit perplexed, but I tell her "Information Services". Now she seems a bit puzzled "5th floor of the education building?" "Yes." "I used to work up there." She's Asian, short, and possibly Filipino although I'm not sure about the accent. I definitely don't recognize her. She asks my name and then gives me hers - twice because I wasn't sure if I heard it correctly the first time. It's one of those names that's one letter different from another name so I wanted to be sure I got it right. Then I'm walking away repeating the name to myself to try to remember it so I could look get up later. Then I walked through a door and promptly forgot it. Sigh. (I think I eventually did remember the name, but won't be sure unless I run into her again.)