quirks and the creation thereof
Have you ever had a chance encounter that ended up influencing your life? I don’t mean when you meet someone and you become lifelong friends, or you have an experience that causes you to rethink your life. Nothing that significant. I’m talking about some part of a brief interaction that has worked its way into your life.
Allow me to provide an example. 😉
When we lived in GA, there was a delightful, locally-owned Greek/Italian restaurant about 10 minutes from our house. My husband and I ate there a couple times and it was delicious. The Greek shrimp pasta, in particular, was quite amazing. We’re talking whole wheat pasta, bell peppers, feta cheese… (Excuse me while I mop the drool off my face..)
On one of our visits, we had a very sweet waitress; she looked like she was about high school age. She was attentive without hovering, but she had one odd trait. She.. well.. she spoke kinda like she was singing. She brought us our drinks, we said thank you, and she replied with “youu’re welll-commme” in a lilting, sing-songy kind of way. (I’m not talking opera here. More like they way you’d sing “la-la-la-la-la” while distracted.)
As you can imagine, we were quite amused. I have no idea if she realized that she was doing that. But that one encounter made a lasting impression on us. Not in a “we’re going to change our lives and sing everything instead of talking” kind of way. But it sort of snuck its way into our conversations. Now, when my husband says thank you, my automatic impulse is to say “youu’re welll-commme.” It’s our own little inside joke.
I don’t remember the waitress’s name. I’ll probably never see her again. But she added a funny little detail to our lives. I wonder how many quirks in my life are the result of chance encounters?
I wonder if I’ve ever created quirks in someone else’s life?
That’s kind of a scary thought…