Rubber Ducky…he’s the one!

(This should have posted Tuesday...sorry)

On my way to the post office this morning, I saw the cutest thing! A mama duck and 8 tiny ducklings waddling down the gutter! They were just about 1/3 of a block off of the busiest street in Wichita (Kellogg), on Armour. I have no idea where they came from…there are no ponds or large bodies of water that I know of close to where they were. I was driving on down Armour, on the other side of Kellogg, thinking about how odd it was to see such a sight in such a busy area…when it happened again. I turned onto Douglas, toward Rock Road, and there was a huge pool of rain water…right next to the mall. Floating in the rain water, with their heads tucked under their wings, were four large ducks! Isn’t it a shame that real ducks aren’t bright yellow…like rubber ducks?! Even so…ducks are cool!!

I had lunch at Cameron’s today. It is a small, nondescript café, just across Kellogg. They have a full menu of plain old, every day, home cooked food. The wait staff is quick, efficient, friendly, and cliché. Today, I had 2 eggs over easy (of which I ate mostly the yolk), and one biscuit with gravy. It was very good, and the total bill was only $3.90!

I never understood what the kids meant when they joked about eating at a table for one…until I started working where I do now. A couple of times a week, Marvin picks me up for lunch, but the rest of the time, I walk at the mall and have a snack at my desk, or drive through somewhere, and eat in my car. However, one day I just didn’t feel like doing either of those things, so I headed over to Cameron’s alone (for the first time). I walked in and waited to be seated…only to have the waitress lead me to a very large booth, that could have easily accommodated 6 people. I ordered, then sat there feeling silly. No one to talk to…nothing to read…so, I subtracted my checkbook, read through the phone numbers programmed into my cell phone, then sat there some more. My food came quickly (thank heavens), I ate it in record time, and got the heck out. I slid in behind the wheel in the car, then realized that the sum total of 20 minutes had elapsed since I had gotten out of the car. Today, I took a newspaper in with me! I still had time to eat, then go to Target (next door) for a bit.

It was a strange feeling to sit there alone…I didn’t know how to ‘put my face’. Isn’t it odd how things like that affect us? A simple thing like eating a meal…turned into 20 minutes of stress and indecision…all because society dictates the boundries of ‘normal’ and ‘acceptable’. Why shouldn’t we feel okay about sitting alone in a restaurant, or a theater, or any number of other venues…if that’s what circumstances dictate?

Be Well!