Sunday, January 27, 2008

the regulars

This evening at Toro I had the pleasure of waiting on fellow waitress Sarah's favorite regulars. As I approached the table to pour their sparkling water, Sarah introduced me.

"Kitty, this is Dave and this is Jan," she said.

"Pleased to meet you," I said.

"They come in here all the time," Sarah told me, "Don't you guys? You haven't met Kitty before, have you?" She asked the regulars. They shook their heads and smiled up at us. "But I guess it's not usually on a night when you work."

"No surprise there," I said, "I only work one night a week at the moment. Well, I used to work more than that. Actually, my schedule has changed a lot since I started here: first I worked Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, then Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, now I just work Sundays. Surprising that we never met. But how lovely it is to meet you now!"

The couple smiled and shrugged. They looked so familiar to me...yet to them, my face didn't ring a bell.

Only several hours later, as Dave & Jan were finishing up their meal, did I realize: I did meet Dave & Jan before. Almost a year ago, actually, on the same night of the week (Sunday) in the same section of the restaurant (by the fireplace.) Sarah chatted them up the whole time they were at Toro, just like tonight, and introduced me to them as her favorite regulars. There was just one major difference between that night and this night back then, my hair was dark brown. Now I am blonde.

It's a little absurd how frequently this happens to me. Entire relationships, begun and forgotten because of a simple change to the shade of my hair.

But then again, I guess that's why we're here, isn't it?

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