Winding Down at Taco Mac

What a hectic day yesterday was! I got in to work at eight am, to find I had twenty one pallets of rugs to put away and no help. Resourceful as I am, I called in my trusty sidekick, Andrew. Hassan came in at nine, and as soon as he was done with his stuff, I grabbed him too. We latched on to a few others as they trickled in to work, and by day's end had seven pallets left.

Tired, sore and satisfied, after helping a customer with a dead battery start her car, I headed off to Taco Mac to meet my wife and daughter for Friday night dinner.

The stranded customer allowed Phyllis to beat me to the restaurant. I told her to put our name on the list for a table, but I knew she wouldn't, she's just that way. That was my job. Other people came in after her and went up to put their name on the list. Kudos to the hostesses, because they had seen Phyllis come in, and one of them walked over to give Phyllis one of those Close Encounter lightshow vibrating coasters. The young lady told Phyllis that she was ahead of all those people who walked in after her.

When I walked in the door, Phyllis started telling me what the hostess had done, and the vibrating lightshow coaster went off.

As we made our way to our table, I took in the room. I saw only part of the restaurant, and counted twenty-five televisions, tuned to a variety of sports events. The place was busy, packed and full of laughter. Just what I needed after a tough day. A slow, quiet place would have put me to sleep.

There were some large parties, some smaller like ours, and at least a few parties with gray hairs, and one I saw with kids. The majority of people were in their twenties or thirties. Everyone seemed to be having fun, and it was contagious.

We sat in a booth with a large table and very high seat backs, which gave us some privacy without taking us out of the party atmosphere. There were a lot of staff people hustling back and forth. Our waitress, Amber, came and took our order. Beth got a club sandwich (it was huge, and came with fries), and Phyllis and I shared twenty wings. The wings were good, but I've had better.

Two tables away, a family or two with elementary age boys sat laughing and telling stories. Next to us, a party of mid twenty year olds were eating dinner and drinking beer. A cute college coed pranced by us with her look what I got smile on as she towed by the hand a young man with a happily emasculated grin. The table over my shoulder housed an older group of people. Aside from their hair color and a few wrinkles, they were identical to the table of twenty year olds.

Lots of people, lots of laughter, plenty of talk, and none of it angry.

Just what I needed after my day at work.