Thursday, February 16, 2006

Mint smells good.

Something is in the air that is causing people to be downright weird, and I for one am loving it. Here are some recent goodies:

I was grocery shopping, and the checker girl was ringing up a bag of fresh cilantro. She commented on how much she just loves the fragrance of the herb, and I agreed, but it went on and on as I was then treated to the many uses of the great and almighty cilantro. There was a young guy bagging my groceries, completely silent the entire time, just solemnly bagging my purchases. As he was escorting my cart out to the parking lot, I found it interesting that he was so quiet, and so I tried to make chit chat, but to no avail. I only received a polite nod or two. But when he was finished loading my car, and just as he slammed the back closed, he turned to me and asked, "You know what else smells good? Mint." Yes. Yes it does! And then I had to laugh as I got into my car, at the very thought that this was what his brain was working on the entire time!

After a whirlwhind weekend of fancy meals at fancy restaurants, I went out again Tuesday night with friends to another la-dee-da dinner. It was kind an older establishment, quite fancy and dark, and you could tell the waiters had come with the building - they were all older and well skilled with the menu and wine selections. Our waiter was particularly interesting because he was so...fast. He'd rattle off suggestions for the next course, and before you could ask a question, he was gone. This was generating a lot of laughter at our table, as we were actually writing down our questions so that we could be prepared for his next brief appearance. We also had to hold our ten foot high menus on our laps while we ate our appetizers because he had them on the table and split before we could even order our entrees. Awkward, but funny. At one point, I directed a little joke his way about what an entertaining waiter he was...and that's when the floodgates opened. Everytime he returned to our table afterward, he was performing....directly to me. All attendees at the table marveled at this, and wondered what he'd do next. For me, it was completely awkward, and actually felt like WORK as I had to stop enjoying my champagne and crab cakes and TAKE IN his performance and acknowledge it with praise. At the end of the evening, my friends felt he should have tipped ME.

This morning I was wrapping up a call with a client, and mentioned how quickly our spring-like weather had turned to pretty-damn-cold. He resonded with, "What we need you to do is, go outside and warm it up with your...(wait for it)...smile." Did he read that on MSN or something? "Impress the ladies with these weather-related witty comments. And possibly score!"

Today I won't be getting out of the office to interact with people until the afternoon, but I can't WAIT to see what happens next.