Day 37: Souper!Salad!

I spent some time today working on my story from last night--I'm happy with 75% of it, but still working and reworking the ending. I'm beginning to wonder if it's beyond me... I feel like it's a puzzle that just has a couple pieces that I haven't quite figured out how to fit yet.

So, as a nice distraction, we had dinner at our favorite family restaurant Souper!Salad! My kids love it because they can have nutrition-free pizza, gooey mac n' cheese, grapes, and ice cream. I love it because where else can I get salad, banana pudding, a taco, AND a baked potato, if I choose? Plus, it's generally a treasure trove for people watching junkies like me. Among tonight's crowd...

Lady in a Green Dress: Now. I am not one to judge. I am much more of a "comfort" girl than a fashion guru, but I was quite amazed by the self-confidence displayed in the fashion choices adorning this very nice lady. She had on a tight kelly-green dress. Tight as in "I can see not only the LINES of your thong underwear, I can see the texture, the brand, and the size." This was topped with a black leather-type bolero, a big flashy necklace that looked like it was made of a plastic mirror, and--so help me--bright purple eyeshadow. Sparkly bright purple eyeshadow. The thing that truly warmed my heart was this kind woman *knew* she looked good. She was positively strutting. It brought me joy.

Couple with Lazy Eyes: At the table behind us was a lovely couple who, oddly enough, both had one lazy eye. I have a lazy eye, myself, but not the kind that wanders. These two, however, had every side of the restaurant covered. What was strangest was that I could never really tell if they were looking at me. Was the eye resting upon me the one that was focused, or not? I worried about it a bit as I dunked my hand into my extra-large red glass of ice water after I burned it on the steam from the soup pot. Did the lazy eyed couple think I was a weirdo, with my hand stuck in the water? Or did they really not notice at all?

Awkward Waiter: Alright, one of the strange things about Souper!Salad! is the "waiters." They bring you a drink. They clear your plates. And they wear Hawaiian shirts. (Do you leave a tip? Always a conundrum.) Well, tonight, our waiter was the epitomy of awkward. We'll call him Awkward Joe. When our drinks didn't have any flavor at all and we pointed it out? He was so busy apologizing, he didn't actually fix the problem and we got two brand new styrofoam cups of tasteless, sparkling water. When he would come to ask if he could take a plate away, he was always so rushed to get the plates off the table that he took the wrong ones. Was he distracted? New at his job? Exhausted? What??? What about our little family was so terrifyingly disconcerting???

Do you think that I could come up with a story in which Green Dress Lady is actually in love with Awkward Joe the Waiter, but ne'er the twain shall meet because Lazy Eye Couple keeps wanting refills of Sweet Tea????