A peach-colored full moon, striped by clouds, hung low over the St. John's River as I made my way across the bridge toward home after a long day. I hadn't intended to, but I got a big slice of the Florida pie today. On Tuesday between my early and late class, I stayed on campus. Today my foot was screaming in pain; I had to end my first class a bit early, and I was grouchy. I didn't want to stay on campus, didn't want to have to make small talk or be nice. So I took off in search of an office store. I don't know the area well around the college. I just drove. The sun was bright, the air was hot, and I was seeing new things. I didn't make my foot feel better, but it took my mind off it for a while.
Immediately surrounding the campus (and even on campus) Spanish moss hangs from huge old trees. It's a lovely neighborhood. Just a short distance away, however, are some not-so-lovely neighborhoods, but I took those in too, without judgment, just observing. I passed motels, strip clubs, pawn shops, fast-food joints, and taverns with packed parking lots -- at 3:00 in the afternoon. I saw a lot of stores, but no office supply places. So I kept driving. I'm not sure where I was when I decided to turn at the next light, and -- lo and behold -- a Staples suddenly appeared. A decidedly agitated older lady was struggling with one copy machine; a man making about a thousand copies of different documents occupied the other. I waited patiently, looking at the store and the other customers. I thought about how convenient it was to have a Tire Kingdom on one side of Staples and several eateries on the other side. If I went to that Tire Kingdom (instead of the one right down the street from me), I could enjoy a salad or a slice of pizza while I waited instead of tolerating the too-loud TV and staring out the window at the parking lot. I pondered these and many other things as I awaited my turn at the copier.
Copies made, I headed back out. I still didn't really know where I was, but at least I knew how to get back to campus. I passed the road I used to turn onto to get my then-beau's apartment. At that point, even though it has been about six years since I last went there, I kind of knew where I was. I saw all kinds of people doing all kinds of things, and I thought about how little I know about the city outside of my "quad": house, beach, work, shopping center. The quad is bigger now that I work farther away, but I still don't venture much beyond it.
I still had an hour and a half to kill before my next class started, and I was hungry. The Waffle House appeared before me, and I turned in. I had no intention of getting waffles, but the parking lot was empty and in my reflective mood, that was a good selling point. I went in and the servers looked grateful for something to do. I had the place to myself, and my server was very nice. When I said they looked bored, she said, "We've just been waiting for you to come in." I've never been there before, and I've only been to Waffle House a few times, even though Florida is filled with them. I ordered a salad and a tea, chatted a little with the server -- the young man who cooked the chicken for my salad came by my table to ask how it was; actually, it was quite good -- asked for a tea to go, paid my bill, and left too large a tip. Who would have thought that in what started off (and was continuing to be) an annoying barren day, Waffle House would turn out to be an oasis?
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