Mystery Man

Let me begin by saying that I am very much a people watcher. Usually I can just watch and move on but tonight this man had my FULL attention. Brian and I went to Mannys for dinner. Our table sat cattywompas (I'm pretty sure that isn't a real word) to this mans table. Brian's back was to him but I was facing him. I noticed him when I first walked in but something about him, I just couldn't keep from looking at him. He didn't look up very much so I could watch him without being noticed. He was nicely dressed and seemed very proper and polite. The more I watched him the more I became interested in him. I wanted to know where he lived, why he was there by himself, if he came there often. The questions were filling my mind.

After watching him for some time I got my camera out. The plan was to get a picture of the food or maybe the Mannys menu but at this point I knew my picture was going to be of this man. I sat my camera on the table so I didn't have to look through it and took the picture. Well, actually I tooks LOTS of pictures. The angle wasn't good and the lighting was bad. I just kept snapping away. I was looking at my pictures that I had taken and trying to carry on a conversation with Brian so I didn't look obvious, when all of a sudden he gets his little pocket camera out and stretches out his arm and grins really big and takes his own picture. OH WOW! Now I am more interested than ever. After he took his own picture he did look at me and smiled.

By this time I had taken so many pictures of him that Brian said he was sure the man knew what I was doing. He finished his meal and ordered dessert, sopapilla's. Thats how much I was into this man and his dinner. When the waiter brought his dessert, he asked the waiter to take his picture. He put on a Veteran cap and picked up his spoon, grinned really big and the waiter took his picture. Again he looked at me and smiled. I did catch him looking at me out of the top of his eyes over his glasses so maybe Brian was right. But it didn't keep me from watching him.

He finished his meal, paid and left. As he walked by, he smiled at me again. After he left I just kept thinking about him and how much I wanted to know his story. I very seriously contemplated talking to him but just couldn't quite get the nerve to do it. I wanted to ask him a few questions. I wonder what I would have learned had I been able to talk to him. Maybe the things I imagined about him were more exciting than his real story BUT, maybe not. There might have been some very interesting information there that he was just waiting to tell someone.

Well, I will never know the mans story. I wonder what would happen tho, if we took a little time and really noticed the people around us and were able to find out their story. Something to think about. Maybe next time I will get the nerve to speak to the person because I feel like I really missed an opportunity with this one.