People Watching

On the spur of the moment this evening, we decided to go out to eat. We got there at the end of the early crowd and were seated immediately.

We were in the middle of the restaurant, surrounded by other folks - none of which I knew, by the way - not one.

To my right sat a couple. They were a young middle aged pair, both about 75 pounds overweight. They looked into each others eyes, held hands across the table, and talked almost the whole time.

To my left, sort of behind Daughter, sat a young father and his about five year old son. Even though they sat side by side, I never saw the daddy speak to his boy. The little boy immediately started coloring something while the father texted, checked facebook, and chatted on his phone. When the bread came, the little boy got a piece, ate a hole in the middle of it, then used it as a spy glass.  When their food came, the father did occasionally glance at his son to make sure he was able to get the food on his fork.

In the next booth was an older couple. Probably in their early seventies. They had dressed nicely to eat out. They both had a terrible scowl on their face and never spoke. Not once.

Behind them was a booth full of people who were chatting excitedly about something or other. One woman brought out her ipad to show them a graph of some sort, which they all looked at intensely.

Up ahead of us was a long table full of young children, parents and the grandparents. At one point, the four year old little girl burst into song. "Happy Birthday". She sang it lustily and her family smiled. Whoever had the birthday thanked her. The baby got down once and toddled around on unsteady feet, but was watched carefully.

My family? Well, we talked some. We laughed a good bit. We were silent a little when the food first came and we dug in.

But it did cross my mind on the way home: Did someone watch us?

Maybe we'll get blogged about tonight too.