Sunday, August 22, 2010

Strange, But True

Some facets of this weekend have seemed like trips to the Twilight Zone. Just take a look at all that happened on Friday night!

For all its strangeness....nothing compares with what happened to me today. The nice thing about this, my daughter witnesses this and it left her scratching her head.

Following church....my normal gathering for lunch afterwards.....and then a family gathering, my daughter and I decided to have dinner at a wonderful mexican restaurant we know. So, we got settled and just were chit chatting.

Our waiter named Jake showed up with our chips and salsa...along with our menus. He took our drink orders. As I talked with him, he just seemed different. He was quite attractive and young...very young...but I did not think too much about it.

When he return to our table....he made mention of the outfit I was wearing. "I really like that shirt you have on..." I commented that it was much cooler than the outfit I had on yesterday when I was at a wedding to take pictures. "Oh really? Are you a photographer?"

He then went off on a discussion about this photographer he likes....then he asked what my outfit was yesterday. When I said it was purple and black....he said, "Wow, I bet that looked really good. I love those colors."

He got a little tongue tied.

He then disappeared to check on our food....and my daughter said, "Dad, I think he is hitting on you."

It did seem a bit odd...all this attention he was paying to me. It was as if my daughter were invisible.

When he appeared with our food....I struck up another conversation with him. He told me that he was pursuing a computer degree....he also told me how long he had worked at this restaurant... etc.

Every few moments he came by and my daughter said that when he was behind me, he kept looking at me.

It totally amazed her.

Finally he brought us boxes to take our food home....and our bill. I told my daughter that I was going to have some fun with Jake. I was going to write down my cell phone number, but she thought my email address would be much better. So I put it at the bottom of the signed receipt...and put it into the wallett for him to pick up. I decided to wait for him.

He finally came by...and I handed the bill back to him. He told me what a delight it had been to serve me. I wished him luck in everything he does...and he reached out to shake my hand. I shook it....then he said, "But I don't know your name..." I said, "I put my email address down at the bottom of the receipt....drop me a note!"

He beamed!

"All right" he said.

I gently rubbed his lower back..."I would really enjoy hearing from you," i said....and he nodded.

With that we parted.

My daughter was dumbstruck...

"Why can't anything like that ever happen to me?" she said.

I chuckled and thought...this was really random.

Do you think he will write me?

2 comments:

Ron said...

Wow. Yes, I think he will contact you. Very cool. I'm jealous. :)

Bose said...

It's OK if you don't remember, but you and I met once, had great conversation, I was living in DC then (2006, I think?), a quirky long-haired, previously married guy.

My thought on this encounter with the waiter: The irony for you is that you hate that dating is a game, full of playfulness and long odds, and yet at your core, you're playful, creative, articulate, and principled.

Your gut tells you that it should be reasonable to hope to connect with a life partner in a fashion remotely similar to the way it worked between you and Lovey, or in a Hugh Grant or Doris Day flick. For all of those plot-lines, it was not about carefully filtering out multiple near-misses.

But that is closer to reality.

It doesn't surprise me that the waiter was charmed by you, or that you responded beautifully. The best way to frame that, it seems to me, is that you've got great intuition and guys are likely to respond to you. As you continue being you, open to the world around you, similar circumstances will continue to develop.

Each one will feel huge, yet only a few will blossom, and a few of the few could bloom into true magic.

A good guy like you, who believes in magic, and is willing to stay in it until you find it, is likely to find it. The search for the needle in the haystack is frustrating, but it will work out as long as you stick with it.

Be well...