Oh hello saturday, how are you doing?
I am sure you are thinking that I have the most exciting weekends imaginable, and you would be right. This saturday did not dissapoint.
I started by going to meet my Thesis advisor at our local beignet place. If you have never been down to good ol’ Louisiana we eat the most delicious breakfast and coffee ever, Beignets and Cafe au lait. And on a saturday morning everyone is clad in their game day gold and purple.
I totally forgot to take a pic. So, I borrowed this one from http://www.insideec.com
I like to get there early as the line is long and I want to have my beignets for our meeting. As soon as I got in line and elderly gentlemen got in line directly behind me. And that is when shit got real. He saw my notebook and asked if I was stuyding. I said yes I was. He the proceeded to tell me how he had spent many a years mentoring students at this coffee place. All of his daughters had gone through grad school and so had his wife. His wife graduated when she was 20, then she took a job teaching english to seniors in high school and after one year thought that was enough. She then worked for the welfare office until we started having kids. We had three kids in a five year time span. After that she went back to school for elementary education and taught kindergarten for many years. When, her friends told her the counselor was retiring and she had two years to get a masters in counseling so she could take the job. So, she went back to school and has been a counselor ever since. One of my daughters is also a counselor. See I’m in line to get her beignets to go. She called asked where I was and I said Coffee Call of course. She was excited and asked me to bring some to her. So, thats what I’m doing. Then, I have to go to walmart to get her some boxes for her office. They are remodeling their house over in (fancy neighborhood). They are adding 1000 square feet and doubling the size of the kitchen. I have done lots of remodeling so I know what it is like to live off a microwave in the bathroom. I wouldn’t normally be bringing her beignets, but she just got an embryo implanted yesterday and has to lay down all day. At this point I am like is he serious? He just continues on. It has been so difficult for them, and so hard to watch. And these treatments are so expensive. She is lucky she is married to a lawyer, but they have family money from both sides too. I opened a trust for her when she was so little, and her husband’s grandfather died recently and I think that is where they got the money for the renovations. Of course I don’t really know…..
He continues and finally ends with well I am here every saturday I will probably see you here again.
I finally make it to my seat and my advisor shows up. He thinks the line is too long so he is going to wait before getting coffee, which means he is going to show me pictures of his cat he took this morning. The cat named patea. He got patea two years ago from a cat adoption agency and they named her claudia, but then it turned into catea which morphed into patea, but patea is a nice name.
At this point I think I have stepped into an alternate universe where people start telling you all about their lives. Did I miss the memo? Am I supposed to be doing this now?
The bigger questions is, when I am old will I do this to random strangers? I shudder at the thought of discussing my most personal moments with random strangers who with then be so shocked they run home to write about it and I will be famous. On second thought, maybe I should start doing this now so I can become famous faster.
nevercontrary 