I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

At 5:00 tonight, two older women walk into the restaurant and ask for seats at the bar.  

I ask if they have reservations, and they say they do not.  

As luck would have it, I have two seats available, the last two for the first turn.  

They assure me they won’t be long and I get them seated.  

Fast forward to 6:30. The two women are still seated and I think to myself, won’t be long my ass. I’m stressed because I have two couples coming in at 6:30 and I don’t have stools for them.  

I make a note on my paper, “won’t be long my ass.”

Two minutes later, I make the turn, past the curtains, to go into the dining room and guess who is coming toward me.  

The two older ladies.

I thank them for coming in and they reply, thank you for getting us in. We needed the counseling.  

I say of course, I’m glad it worked out.  

One of them says, they needed relationship counseling, and the other agrees.

This leads to some back and forth. I joke about how young they are. They laugh about the drinks they had and how much they needed them.  

I asked what they had to drink.

One of the women replies red wine tonight, but this one, pointing to the other lady, she has Kentucky blood and usually goes for something stronger.

I say, Kentucky? Really. What part.

No matter how many times I ask this, they always reply the same, because they assume I won’t have heard of it.  

She says, Central Kentucky.

I say what part.

She says, Lexington.

I say what part.

She says, we’ll really Frankfort but I lived in Lexington as an adult.  

At this point I share that I am from Kentucky as well. And grew up in Georgetown. 

They get very excited about this.  

The woman not from Kentucky asks if I root for the blue team. I assure her that I do.  

The KY woman, asks if I went to school there. I say, I went to Georgetown College for my undergraduate degree and UK for my Master’s.  

There is more back and forth and I say, I left Georgetown the year the Toyota plant opened.  

She says, The Toyota plant. That damn Mitch McConnell. You do lean blue don’t you

I reply I don’t know what you are talking about.

The other woman says, You are a Democrat. You look like a Democrat.

I say that I don’t know what you are talking about. When I’m standing at the door, I don’t get involved, but if you really want to know, I’m a middle aged gay man, so what do you think???

They both burst out laughing.  

The KY lady, continues that damn Mitch McConnell, I hate him. Thank god the election looks like it’s going to go our way this year. That damn Mitch McConnell, and then shares with her friend how Mitch let the cat out of the bag with the Toyota announcement to one up the Democratic Governor at the time.  

We continue to discuss the state. She says that she grew up in Frankfort and then lived her adult life in Lexington, and retired to Maine because her husband’s family had a house here.

We continue to chat. As we do, it seems like everyone I know is leaving the building. They walk into the lobby, join in the chat, we all laugh, say our goodbyes, and they leave as the two women and I continue to chat.  

We chat about them in Maine. They ask how I got to Maine from Kentucky. I share my theater background. I share that I moved here 10 years ago and how much we love it.  

We talk for what seemed like an hour.  

They start to leave and the Kentucky woman comes back to the host stand, and says, Do you know who Don Blevins is in Lexington?  

I say of course I do.  

She says, he’s my son. He just won re-election. Then she whoops.  

I say that’s awesome.

We chat for a few more minutes.  

She telIs me that she can tell I have a strong character because of all the limestone in Kentucky. I laugh and say I was just talking about that last night.  

I then tell her how wonderful it was to have this conversation and to have such a nice meeting. I tell her I can’t wait till she comes back in again.  

She leaves, and I’m left being grateful for the encounter.