The Lunch Lady

Because I only teach a half day, I often run errands after class.  Today I needed to replace two tires on the car.  I don't know when I started only replacing two tires at a time.  It's been going on this way for some time. I have them move the back tires to the front and put the new tires on the back.  It may have started when I used to get studded snow tires so the other back tires got less wear or perhaps I was pinched for money. However, it started it is one of those things you can't really stop once the cycle begins.

I went to Les Schwab and the "on sale" tires were out of stock. I told them I thought that was a marketing trick not to stock many of the sales items. They said those particular tires wouldn't work on my van anyway.( I felt a little bad for being mouthy, but only a little bad. I don't have much self control in that area.) They said it would take about an hour.  The weather was great so I decided to walk couple of blocks and have lunch at a restaurant that recently changed hands and names. It used to be Rock Park Cafe. It was an effort to start a trendy place where young people would gather but I think that in Ephrata trendy eight dollar sandwiches tend to lose out to cheap fast food combo meals.  Now it is the Blue ___  (something...hmm apparently not that memorable). It serves Japanese Food. There is already a Vietnamese Restaurant in Ephrata. It will be interesting to see if this small  town can support two Asian food places.

On the way to the Restaurant, I decided to stop by the bookstore. I would, after all, be eating alone so I thought a book would be nice company. I was looking for Listening is an Act of Love- From the NPR Story Corps Project.  This is the third time that the local bookstore had no idea what I was talking about.
I wanted something, so I looked over the books on the 50% off sale table and settled on Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann. and a collection on seven small books, McGuffy's Eclectic Readers: Primer though the Sixth. I am somewhat familiar with the readers and am excited to now make some comparison to current educational materials, but that will be for another day.  The McCann novel looked interesting and had a "National Book Award" sticker on it so it would be my lunch companion.

As I left the bookstore I imagined myself in a large busy city, walking with my book bag, confidently heading out to have lunch by myself and looking forward to it. Unfortunately my midday reverie was interrupted by my reflection in the restaurant's window glass.  In my  grey wool suit type jacket, my black skirt with a hemline that hits a few inches below the knee and my sensible shoes I looked remarkably like Mary Poppins. Much more Mary Poppins than metropolitan, that was for sure.

Much more this:

Than this:

Oh well, the first few pages of the book were entertaining, the yakisoba was good, and I finished my errands.