Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Sublime to Ridiculous

Happy 70th birthday to my mother, whose energy would lead you to believe that she is much younger. When talking about older people, we all run the risk of sounding as if we are talking about circus freaks, but i feel that I must mention that my mother is a good and helpful friend to many people, she's generous, and she still does all her own yardwork. In her free time, she glides across the internet like a kid; she plays games and buys things from ebay. Hitting a milestone birthday put her in a retrospective type of mood, and she found her life to be satisfying with few regrets. I found myself wondering if any of us could ask for more than that, and I was happy for her.

Now for the ridiculous. Yesterday, while waiting to meet Cameron at his house, I walked along Piedmont Avenue. Realizing I was very hungry, I stepped into one of those little pizza places that sells slices to lunch crowds. Even though it was almost 2 p.m., the place was still full of working people, which seemed like a good sign. I ordered a slice of spinach/mushroom pizza, paid for it, and sat down to wait. After about 30 minutes of waiting, it dawned on me that everyone who was in there when I entered had eaten and left and the next wave of people were happily eating. I walked up to the counter and the following conversation took place:
Me: I have been waiting a really long time for my pizza and I just want to check if something went wrong.
Counter person: Let me see. (She starts checking everywhere. There are two slices that have been cooling on top of oven that haven't been claimed, but neither is mine. She asks the owner, who starts looking for the paper on which he wrote down my order). No. We can't find it. One of these unclaimed ones is sausage/mushroom/spinach. Would you like that?
Me: Actually, I'm really, really hungry and I will take it.
Counter Person: Okay. No charge for the extra topping.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Not so sure I glide across the internet like a kid, but I do play Pogo games really well. Thank you for your great comments about your mama. Love you, God!!! Seventy sounds sooooo old.