a table for one

before i even realized it, i had escaped. i took a teeny but powerful (!!) cat nap on sunday afternoon and ran out of the house within two minutes of waking up. i added a belt to my geometric nap dress, bb cream to my face and pulled my tangled hair into a messy bun. both my boys were fast asleep as i rode away with silence as my only companion.

the escape plan was loosely designed, at best. barely even a plan, really. my needs were simple. i wanted something i have done so many times before. something that i have always taken for granted. i wanted to get coffee and read a book in a coffee house all by MESELF. i used to do this all the freaking time. and yes, i know i can drink coffee and read at home. and it's quiet there. after all the boys were sleeping right? but still, it's just not the same. so i spent my last two dollars on an iced coffee with extra cream and raw sugar. i brought my ipad out of the house. and i grabbed a little table just for me. i sat, i read, i sipped, i observed busy mamas busy with their kids and not enjoying their coffee. i sighed happily at my table for one. and then it happened. the murmuring tea party for three next to me turned into a party of four. the fourth member, the v. chatty one i might add, took the seat at MY table. please understand, he did not take the extra chair from my table and move it over to join his friends at their table. he sat with me and chatted loudly at his sewing circle. gossip, gossip, sip, laughter, slurp. it was like teenage girls, but worse. much louder and much more distracting. and in indian. so i couldn't understand a word, leaving my inherent nosiness completely unsatisfied.

around this time, i was pretty annoyed. after all, i had a silence plan! and they were talking. out loud. of course, i was being irrational. it was a coffee house, which by nature is designed for sipping and chatting. it was not the library. i had no right to shush these men. if atticus could say "patience" as i poured his milk each morning, i could certainly exercise some at this moment. or i could just go home to my quiet house and read and sip there.

i gingerly opened the door to our home and the silence was still palpable. i curled up on the couch with a blanket and my book for a good twenty minutes before i was happy to hear, "mommy?" feeling recharged, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the splash park. atticus screeched with delight as the water turned on and off, only pausing for a quick clementine break before we returned home. as we sat down to dinner, passing rice back and forth with ease, chatting about this and that, our table for three seemed just about perfect.