This Is Where It All Goes Down

I slide into the booth semi-gracefully, and get the attention of the restaurant's only waiter. His eyebrows raise quickly in ackowledgement, his mouth forms a hint of a smile as he grabs his yellow pad. He scribbles down our order with quick, jerky motions. I can't really read what he's writing; just a familiar looking letter every now and then that only causes confusion in this brain of mine. We wait for him to return, his shoes sliding across the tile floor, breaking the silence of the bare restaurant.

A moment later as I'm stirring sugar into my glass of water, I see something familiar. The white-haired man who is always watching sports and drinking a dark glass of Jack Daniels. This, is my typical Monday afternoon in between work. My grandma and I usually mean to eat elsewhere, but somehow we always end up at the tiny little Chinese restaurant with a staff of four, right down the street from the John Paul Jones Arena where famous people come to visit. It's good, and it's quiet. I like that.

• This morning, I heard the beards chirping through my headset. It was a happy "good morning" from God. How could you NOT smile at a thing like that? * smiles *

• We were short again and I was basically flying solo in drive-thru which doesn't always work out so very well. Today it only had it's glitches and little slip-ups ever now and then, like:

Me (on Headset): "Will that be all for you, sir?"

Driver (at the Window): "Oh, yes ma'am. You have a good day. Thank you."

Me (Forgetting I hadn't turned my button for drive thru off when replying to the man at the window): "You too, sir! Have a great day. It's my pleasure."

Driver (at the menu): "Hey! Hold on. I'm not done yet!"

• And then a nice man came in today, and when I noticed his Little Debbie jacket, I told him how much the boys loved Debbie Cakes and kept the business going. * winks * He and I got to talking and I ended up sharing how dad had raised us on those cakes and it was one of my favorite childhood memories ... he was just the nicest man. So when I turned around to give him his order, he was gone and I thought he'd run to the restroom. But then I see him walking through the door carrying three boxes of Springy looking Debbie Cakes in his hands. He gave them to me with a big smile, and said "Hey! I just so happened to have a few extra boxes in the truck. Take these home for your family." I was absolutely floored and his niceness almost made me cry. 

"Let go, laughing! Life won't go quite like you plan it, and we try so very hard to understand it. But just let it all go ... laughing."