People Watching
I spent the day traveling and then tooling around a city much hipper than my own, and in the process had the occasion to observe and form judgments on a number of people, all favorable. I didn't come upon a single disagreeable human all day. I tend to overlook that type as much as possible anyway.
The first person to catch my attention this morning was the TSA agent working the deposit end of the tray line at the giant carry-on luggage machine. He's the guy whose job it is to tell you to take your laptop out of the bag and remove everything from your pockets. It was before 5 AM, and most people were a bit groggy, but this man was in his element, giving us all props for following directions so keenly. As I tucked my shoes into the bin, making sure nothing hung over the edges, TSA Guy said, "Look at you doing it right! You look like one of our training videos!" Usually, all I get from those people are suspicious glares when I fail the body scans because of the metal implants in my knees.
When I got to Atlanta for my layover, my gate was crowded. I was winded from a long walk across a couple of terminals, so I just sat there catching my breath. I overheard a lively conversation between a Latino man wearing athletic shorts and a tank top and an African American lady of similar age wearing a ball cap. There was nothing flirty about the way they interacted. He described in minute detail his job managing immigrant construction crews. She would interrupt occasionally to ask relevant questions, obviously interested in his tale. They went back and forth for several minutes. It was so wholesome, two people just killing time waiting for a plane engaging each other instead of isolating on their phones or staring into space.
When my son picked me up, we went on a tour of his Hyde Park neighborhood, stopping at Antonelli's Cheese Shop on Duval Street. Be warned, as you open the door, a wonderful pungency greets you shortly before one of the white-aproned attendants behind the counter does. As my senses tried to catch up with the conversation, the cheese guy was pumping for info on what I'd like to try. My cheese knowledge is average at best. I am no connoisseur. When I tentatively asked if they had any bleu cheese, he laughed and affirmed that they had about a dozen kinds and started breaking them down for me, finally offering me a taste of a sheep's milk-based French Roquefort, which I enjoyed immensely, purchasing a third of a pound. Cheese Guy wrapped it up for me and rang it up along with some Buffalo Mozzarella.
Throughout the day, I saw more cowboy hats than I'm used to. Some folks just let the Texas out, you know? I felt right at home in other ways. I work at a university where I'm around tons of 18-22 year olds. Well, this neighborhood abuts the University of Texas, which is about 20x the size of my school. College-age folks were everywhere, at every coffee shop, on the sidewalks, crowding the acres and acres of intramural fields.
We ate dinner at a high-end sushi place, one of my son's favorites, and this thinned out the college-aged crowd a bit. He ordered a complex dinner for us, complete with oysters on the half shell, eight different kinds of nigiri, a mushroom soup, Brussels sprouts cooked in soy sauce, sake, and chili oil, and finished off with a dessert that included pastry, mousse, ice cream, and Captain Crunch cereal. I drank water, but he ordered exotic sakes with names like Demon Slayer. The star of the night was our waiter, who wore cargo shorts and a bandana. He was the size of a D1 linebacker. At the end of the meal, he did something I've never seen done by a server; he shook our hands and told us that we were exceptional customers who had captured the essence of the restaurant with the way we'd ordered and consumed our meal. He seemed really impressed with our raw fish consumption skills.
Enjoyed it? Please upvote 👇