Finding the connections after the fact
I lived for 16 years in San Francisco, going to the symphony, the museums, the liquor store, the grocery store, the cafes – the same places for years and rarely, very rarely running into anyone I knew. I moved back to New Orleans and no one was a stranger. In San Francisco, the cashier at Coit Liquors where I had bought wine and liquor for years always asked for my driver’s license, in New Orleans, my credit was a matter of fact – we still owe for the bread we bought at Swirl a few days ago.
But today, we went to Bistro Jeanty to have lunch and I ran into the bartender Bob who was the singular reason I went to Bistro Jeanty for years – I would sit at the bar and just have the best time because Bob was there and the food was good. Today, we sat outside and had food that was good, but none of it special – the bib lettuce salad was okay, but recently we made bib lettuce at home that was incredible, the sole meuniere was okay but the mashed potatoes couldn’t even compare to the ones my sister in law made at my house a month or two ago. Mashed potatoes that were so delicious, I ate them for the next few days – yum. Well Bistro Jeanty’s mashed potatoes weren’t yum. So what’s up with that?
Okay but back to Bob – he said you changed your hair and I said Bob do you realize that since the last time I saw you I moved back to New Orleans, went through Katrina, spent three months evacuated in Texas, split with Steve, met a woman and we’re here today because her birthday is Tuesday?
Bob said, go eat your food and give me a moment to digest this.
On the way out, he said, “It was so good to see you. And so good to see you are happy.”
Bob is worth the lackluster mashed potatoes.