An eventful last 24 hours

Yesterday, I met Kim for lunch, as my "vacation" at work continued. We decided to go to a Chinese place that we've never been to before. And one of the things I like to do is to people watch. And there was plenty of that to be found. I'm watching one of the waitresses as she goes to hand a customer at another table a stack of paper napkins. Except, as she's doing this, the stack falls to the floor. She begins to apologize all over herself to the customer and picks up the "dirty stack" and hands them a new stack. The customer looks away and she's walking back to her station--at which point I see her brush off the napkins and put them back in the stack to go onto the next table. I suppose the next table would get the napkins that had graced the floor.
It reminded me of something I saw when I had one of my first jobs--in a Chinese restaurant.
I was working in the kitchen washing dishes and one of the waiters brought in a bunch of dishes to be washed. The owner's wife came in right after him and looked at one of the plates--which had a scoop of white rice on it. It appeared that the customer had taken maybe one forkful out of the rice...but otherwise the scoop was in sort of pristine condition. Which wasn't the point of course, but I digress. The owner's wife then walks over to the cooking pot and scrapes the rest of the "pristine" scoop of rice back into the pot.

I never had anything with white rice from that restaurant again. Anyway....


So last night, Kim and I went to the east part of town to watch the city of Pompano Beach's annual Christmas parade--not that I'm not a huge fan of Pompano, but mainly because Kellie and the rest of the Taravella H.S. marching band were participating. There were a lot of other parents and folks from around town to see the parade, and so Kim struck up a conversation with a couple of them, telling them that we were there to see our daughter and the marching band that she was in--ya know, that sort of a thing. And so the lady standing next to us....her husband comes walking back with dinner for his wife and their two kids. So we figure it something quick, especially because the kids are maybe 3 or 4 years old. So the wife is passing out the food to the kids and then asks her husband what he got himself for dinner (obviously I'm an eavesdropper also--I realize its not my best quality).

"What did you get yourself?" the lady asks.
"Ravioli." he answers.
"Ravioli? You bought ravioli?"
"Yeah...why?"
"Who buys ravioli while their standing around waiting for a parade?"
"What's wrong with that?"
"There's nothing wrong with that....but who buys ravioli? What's the matter with you?"

So the parade begins, and we pretend to be overly enthusiastic, as the quasi-local celebrity's drive by and wave to the crowd. So the woman and Kim strike up a conversation about where their kids were in the parade. And I hear:

"Oh, my daughter is a flutist in the high school band." Kim says to the lady.
"Oh, really? My oldest son did that last year."
"My son just left for college a couple of months ago."
"Oh really? My son hasn't left yet. He has a girlfriend. And so he hasn't gone yet....and I just don't think its the right girl....I mean, for him. She's just not good for him."
"Oh...." Kim says.

And I'm sitting there and I'm thinking.....Kim didn't even know this woman 30 minutes before, and now she feels compelled to tell Kim that her son is dating someone she doesn't approve of and.....well....what in the hell was this woman thinking?


Anyway, so today....Kellie got some very good news. She made All-County band!! The entire county consists of 12 flute players and Kellie made 8th chair--which means out of the 200 people that tried out for All-County, Kellie was 8th best--in the whole county!!! She has really wanted this for a long time so I was very happy for her. And the most amazing thing is, she did it on a borrowed flute. Right before she was do for her tryout, her own flute broke and she had to borrow one from a friend--which made it even more amazing.

And then...to really top off the day, late in the day she and the rest of the band from her high school found out that they had been chosen---as the only band from the state of Florida---to perform in the inaugaration parade for the new president!! That means her band will travel up to Washington, D.C. in January--along with about 5 million other people.

There will be 5 million people there....but only one Kellie Poe-Bowdren.

Later,
Jeff