When I jangled through the front door, the owner grinned from behind the counter and threw me a giant, “HEY Buddy! Ham omelet?”

We haven’t reached the point in our growing relationship of actually trading names, but she cheerfully sat me, joked about the sub-zero weather, goofed, and chirped. I was the only customer; they were closing in a half-hour. She didn’t grumble or make me feel like I was a burden to their clean-up. She didn’t gently remind me “we’re almost closed.” In fact, I was treated like I was their favorite customer.

She served my delicious ham omelet (ham, hashbrowns, swiss cheese) steaming hot. Literally - steaming. I spent the first two minutes just admiring the thick, coiling smoke tendrils snaking everywhere, diffusing its powerful, radiant energy. I kept inhaling deeply, inducing those smokey coils into me. It seemed such a shame to dissect this amazing piece of art. Like I said - that lasted two full minutes.

The buttered toast was grilled perfectly, soft and chewy. She and her helpmate were bantering and laughing five feet away, and I was reading a fabulous book.

For forty minutes, I was in love: homey location, a sizzling omelet, a fascinating book.

What else could I want out of life?

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 8th, 2007 at 1:19 am and is filed under Gratitude. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.