Sometimes You Get a Do-Over

Thanksgiving was on the 27th. M. and I were in Davis in the morning, hanging out at the Starbucks on F Street drinking coffee and watching the people go by until it was time to head to J. & P.'s for the festivities. As usual, I picked a seat where I could get the best view out the windows for people watching. This means M. gets stuck with a view of the wall most of the time, but he's very patient about it.

I saw lots of people who clearly had the same idea of passing time before they had to be somewhere, many with kids in holiday outfits in tow. They all seemed pretty happy to me, and it struck me that people seem more cheerful at Thanksgiving than they do at Xmas. Maybe it's a less stressful holiday because it isn't as commercialized, or maybe it was just too early in the day for people to be cranky yet. (M. has often observed that most unstable people aren't early risers - this may be a comment on me but I can't deny it.) So the one rather sad looking person I saw stood out to me.

She had a grubby yellow skirt and unwashed hair, and a generally unkempt appearance that made me think, "I wonder what she's up to. Will she ask me for change?" There wasn't anything outrageously wrong about her - just an overall sense of unhappiness and isolation. She came into the Starbucks and did whatever she did then headed out. As I watched her through the window, shuffling down the sidewalk, I thought, "This is her Thanksgiving. Maybe I should... Maybe someone should... But I need to be at J. & P.'s soon... and blah blah blah blah blah."

I'm not talking about changing the world here. I didn't want to buy her a car, find her a job, or get her to take her meds. I just wished I had said hello, or good morning, or even just made eye contact and smiled at her. So really, yes, I do mean changing the world, but in a realistic, grass roots kind of way. But I didn't, and the moment slipped past before I focused enough to remember the person I prefer to be.

Fast forward to yesterday. M. and I were in Davis again for M.'s birthday sushi. After that we went to hang out at the Border's, reading books without paying for them and like that. I followed my usual course, reading a bit, then taking out my knitting while M. continued with his reading. I was engrossed in knitting the black & white baby blanket when a woman to my right spoke to me. She apologized for interrupting me, but told me that she just had to speak up because she had never seen anyone knitting in public before. You guessed it - same chick.

It actually took me a little bit to recognize her. I was chatting with her about knitting before it clicked - same shy demeanor, same yellow skirt, same hair. She repeated herself a lot at first, apologizing for speaking to me, but after a bit we got to talking (with pauses for concentrating on my knitting) about knitting stores in Davis, whether or not knitting was popular among Davis students, and the whole phenomenon of internet communities devoted to knitting. Then after a long pause she got up and scuttled away, barely leaving me time to call after her, "Take care."