A little thing

Though my weekend was largely uneventful, one sort of nice thing did happen. It was a small thing, but it made an impression on me.

Yesterday I had to go shopping. Now I detest shopping, but society requires that I purchase and send Christmas cards each year. Yes, I know I don't HAVE to do that, but I just don't like what that would say about me as a person. So, given that I was forced to participate in retail trade yesterday, I decided that I'd reward myself with a trip to CiCi's Pizza -- not the best pizza in the world, but you can't beat the price.

As usual, I carried my latest car book with me. While I was eating, though, I became distracted by a woman and her little girl sitting at the next table. What was it that caught my attention? It was the lack of squirming and screaming from the little girl. Now I'm not indicting all young children (specifically I'm not talking about a 6-year-old angel I know in MS), but it seems that they like to holler and run around. Given that I'm old beyond my years, such things often cause me great irritation. This mother and daughter was different.

I notice that I just referred to "mother and daughter" in the singular sense -- as I would when talking about a "couple". I'm not sure if that's grammatical, but I think it's accurate. They seemed more like a couple of friends out for a meal rather than a mother dragging (or being dragged by) her child. They sat there quietly and had a conversation with each other. Now I don't think they were debating relativity vs. quantum physics, but they seemed like they actually were talking to each other. The little girl listened quietly and they each took turns speaking. It was kind of weird, but in a nice way.

Though I wasn't on the prowl, I noticed that the mom was not wearing a wedding ring. I wondered if these two were like Lorelei and Rory Gilmore (from Gilmore Girls) -- a single mom and her daughter who truly are best friends. It's hard to explain, but it was somewhat touching. I wanted to compliment the woman on her well-behaved child, but I was afraid I'd end up with a face full of pepper spray and a trip to the pokey.

Anyway, that was kind of the highlight of my weekend. I don't know why, but it made me feel good about humankind -- especially since I didn't get pepper sprayed!