peace at dusk

Last evening I ate at RedRocks Pizza, a trendy little place on a corner nearby, with a waiting list for outside seating but I got a seat inside by the window quite readily.  Sometimes when you are eating alone, you can see the irritation on the face of the wait staff.  A one top means a smaller tip but the loss of the table for the same amount of time, more or less.  I offered to sit at the bar, for that reason, but they gave me the window table anyway.

The concept of going out to eat alone is easy, it's the doing of it that requires a bit of working up one's nerve if the place is at all busy.  But who wants to eat where no one else eats?  If I were more gregarious, I would no doubt make friends of the people at the next table, but I'm not that outgoing, so often I sit quietly, either reading or people watching, and sometimes eavesdropping on the conversations around me.

Walking home I passed the bocce ball league players as they left the field across the street.  I wish I could capture the essence of that moment in words.  There was a cooling breeze taking the edge off the day's heat and humidity, dusk was falling, the street lights were just coming on.  The people I've come across here in DC have been almost without exception friendly and helpful and the world was at peace, or so it seemed.  The old lady two doors down was sitting out on the porch and she gave me her name and told me if there was anything I needed to know about DC, she could help me.  The dance club on the corner was just getting lively and the sounds of the city went on all around.

The desire to stay out and enjoy it was eventually overtaken, and off to bed I went.