MAYBE I'M A GOOD LISTENER?

by Just_Lin

I frequent a small, local coffee shop.  I've been going there for years so I'm one of the "regulars".  This means that the cooks and waitresses know my name and I know theirs.  I often chat a bit with the waitresses if time allows.  Not every day, though, and I'm usually reading my book while I eat. On occasion, I may end up sharing a booth with one of the other "regulars' and we'll have a little conversation while we eat.  We have some nice chats but, generally, I'm not a real big talker.  I'm more on the quiet side.

 

The coffee shop has a new waitress, Theresa.  I would guess Theresa is about 60 years old and wears her hair in a single braid that reaches her waist.  Theresa is a talker.  Today during my 1/2 hour lunch Theresa told me the following, all completely unsolicited by me.

 

Theresa likes to go to the other end of the mall to visit the tobacco shop because the clerk there has a chihuahua behind the counter that jumps up and down, up and down, so it can see her over over the top of the counter.  She said it's like he's on a pogo stick or something and she thinks it's soooo cute..... Unless, he's barking at something, then he's not so cute.  Very yappy.  She can't stand yappy dogs.  She could never have a yappy dog, she's more of a cat person.  She used to have a house cleaning business and she really liked it.  She cleaned some businesses, too.  This one house that she cleaned regularly was really quite large and a really nice house.  She really enjoyed cleaning that house but the owner was one of those people that cleaned the house before she got here.  (Tinka, are you reading this?)  She didn't like it that the owner would do that because then when she, herself, cleaned it, she couldn't tell that it looked any different than before she started.  Next door to this house was another house and the people there had two small dogs.  Those dogs would bark all day long.  They were very yappy.  Theresa wouldn't be able to handle that.  She asked about my dog, a pit bull, and answered her own question that pit bulls don't stand around barking all day.  She doesn't know how anybody could stand to have a dog like that and it would drive her crazy to live next door to that constant barking.  When Theresa got done at the coffee shop today, she was going to go to the store to pick up wine for her elderly mother who lives in a senior apartment complex.  It's really a pretty nice complex but she thought the one where she used to live was a little nicer.  Her mother didn't have any friends in the old one, though, so she wanted to move and this new place has worked out better because she has friends there, now.  When she talks to her mother on the phone her mother always complains about the phone not working well but Theresa suspects that the real problem that her mother is probably losing her hearing. 

 

I love to sit at the coffee shop, quietly reading my book while I eat.  This book is taking me a lot longer than usual to get through.  I think it has something to do with Theresa.