Friday, June 3, 2016

Work, Coffee, and Chess

So... This has been a good week. Challenging and enjoyable and good. Monday was relaxed and most of the family spent the latter part of the day at Uncle Bruce and Aunt Margie's swimming and eating yummy food. Tuesday at work was slow and frustrating. It was one of those days that doesn't feel like it's going anywhere. Halfway through the morning when I felt like I had run completely against a wall, I paused, sat blankly for a few minutes, wrote a haiku, and carried on.

And so much to do
But my mind just keeps wand'ring.
Sit up; push forward.

Things did get better and I did accomplish more than I thought I would considering my dullness. The next day at work was even better.

Yesterday, after a day at home, tidying up and such, Esther, Elizabeth and I went to Tullahoma. Elizabeth had a CAP meeting at 6 p.m. Esther needed to find a grade insignia, and I was transportation. The plan was to look in the shed for the grade insignia, drop Elizabeth at the meeting place by 5:55 p.m. and then for Esther and I to go to the Celtic Cup, a delightful coffee shop. The grade insignia was not in the shed. Since Esther and I were hungry and there was plenty of time before Elizabeth's meeting, we through the drive-through at Chick-fil-a.
We drove immediately from there to the meeting place, a Mexican restaurant. We sat in the parking lot, Esther and I eating our chicken nuggets and Elizabeth waiting til it was closer to time for the meeting. (We were there twenty minutes early.) When another cadet showed up, it gave him and his father a chuckle to see us eating fast-food chicken nuggets in the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant.
Once Elizabeth was headed in to the meeting, Esther and I went on to the Celtic Cup (taking the ...scenic route). We entered, ordered our Americano and yerba mate latte, and went upstairs. The table we sat at had a chess set in the center. I had wanted to play a card game, but no cards were in the little collections of games they had. In general, chess is not a game that I will play. I do not take the time, patience, or focus necessary to play it. Esther did not sound too excited about playing. However, as we were sitting chatting, she madee the first move. It seemed that it would be impolite to not return, so I moved and the game was begun.
The Americano, though. The moment it was brought to the table, the color and smell of it reminded me of the Kenyan coffee that Jonathan made when he was visiting us over Christmas. Sure enough, it had a similar bright, sharp flavor, though not as strong as the stuff Jonathan fixed. It was very pleasant!

The game continued. At first, I sincerely was convinced that Esther was going to win. She was being much more bold and adventurous. However, the tide turned and..


Check-mate.

After the chess match, we continued to sit and talk, until one of the waitresses came upstairs to turn out the lights. She told us that they were closing. They had forgotten until just before that we were still upstairs. "We wouldn't want you to get locked in here and walk downstairs and set off the alarms." We laughed a bit and left. For having stayed for half an hour after closing, they were very pleasant. Fairly soon after, Esther got a text from Elizabeth that she was done. We picked her up and after another delay (which involved Sonic, lots of chocolate, and grade insignias), we headed home.

And there you have it.

1 comment:

  1. "It seemed that it would be impolite to not return," just delightful.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.