Overheard Conversation

Author’s Note:  Since I’m not dancing as much, there are fewer stories related to dance.  But I seem to have trouble keeping my thoughts to myself so the blog may start to feature more of these little random snippets of my life.  Figure I’ve already turned parts of my life into a reality show for your reading enjoyment – why not keep going.

We are out for dinner last night and got to the restaurant a little before the expected rush.  The hostess seated us way in the back in the dining area.  This happens from time to time.  While I hate to ascribe motives to people, I think it was because we turned down her offer of a seat in the bar area.

See, they see us as two people without kids and we can easily be shuffled to the bar area to save room for families with kids in the main space.  Which would be fine except (a) we don’t drink and (b) we aren’t really interested in most bars since they come with louder people and sporting events on TV.  Now, I’m a sports fan so sometimes that’s OK but it can be a bit of a distraction.

That might not have been related but the end result is that we were at a table all the way in the back of the restaurant in a mostly empty section.  One of the servers was having his dinner before going on shift.  No problem – people got to eat and I wouldn’t’ expect him to stand up in the kitchen and shovel a salad into his face. Two other servers (both youngish females) came over to talk with him.  Again, not a problem.  Those two were on the clock but it wasn’t busy and I really didn’t care since neither one of them was my server.

But they didn’t seem to realize how far their voices were going to carry.  One starts in on how tired she is and how she’s got an early morning shift at another place which would suck.  But then the guy starts in talking about partying and somehow the topic turns to dropping acid. OK, I’m pretty naive and I’ve never touched anything stronger than alcohol in my life and my image of people who would use acid is locked in the 60’s.  To say she didn’t fit the profile would be an understatement.  I guess she had only done it a time or two and was describing her last trip.

They got into a discussion about the delivery vehicle.  The guy just takes his off paper but she somehow had hers on a sweet tart.  The guy was shocked because he thought that would interfere with the acid.  And, yes, I had to do some serious web searches later because I was curious.  Again, not that I care what they do in their off time and I guess I don’t look like an off duty cop but it sure seemed like a strange topic to be discussing in the open.

This morning, I was at my local franchise coffee place that I don’t want to name because they don’t need any free advertising.  (I seem to have a thing about franchises)  One problem I have at these places is everyone knows my name but since I’m bad with names and they don’t often wear name tags, I usually don’t have a clue.  And, after several interactions where they are calling me by my first name, I kind of feel stupid asking them what their name is.

Anyway, there is this one lady who generally opens the store.  They have a two person crew with one making coffee and this one doing all the stuff needed to get the store open.  But she seems to make a habit of coming out to at least say ‘hi’ to me.  Today, she picks up the work schedule and starts doing a little celebration because she’s only on for a few hours today.  Think she remembered I was there and told me she had just put in some incredible number of hours over the weekend so she was happy to have a short shift.  Not sure why she felt compelled to add that because complaining about work is kind of a universal thing.  See its weird because I am the committed introvert but people in places like seem to like striking up conversations with me.  Maybe I’ve got “please talk to me” tattooed somewhere that I’m not aware of.

Last in my trio of life observations is that I’ve got this owl that has taken up residence in the woods behind our house.  Actually, we’ve had many owls over the years.  Well, I don’t know how many because I don’t know lifespans and all that but you get the point.  Hearing owls is pretty common for me.

But this one just seems a heck of lot more vocal than others I can remember.  And there is no set time for the calls to start.  Sometimes it is early in the evening right around sunset.  Sometimes it is around 10.  There have been times when the stupid thing has woken me up early in the morning.

So naturally, I get curious and start searching on owl symbolism.  I mean it could just be a lonely owl who likes to hear the sound of his or her voice.  I think it is past mating season so maybe this one missed out.  And owls don’t have Tinder so what else are they going to do to attract an owl of the opposite sex.  Its not that I believe in this type of stuff but, then again, I don’t necessarily not believe either.  I mean it can’t hurt to see if there is some kind of message trying to be delivered here.

But I can’t find anything definitive.  There is the major downer that some cultures saw owls as a sign of impending death.  On the other hand, the ancient Welsh (some of my people) associated them with fertility and that doesn’t apply here.  The end result is that an owl can be a good or bad omen so you need to see what events happen right after.  Trouble is that this one is hooting almost every single night so how far in advance is this supposed to be a symbol?

Guess sometimes an owl is just an owl.

They are pretty birds though.  The guy or gal who is stalking us is a barred owl and we’ve seen it in the daylight so this is what they look like.

But what are you trying to tell me??