You Never Know When You're Going To Learn Something

Friday, Nov. 4, I went to see Elton John in concert. Yeah, I’ve mentioned that I was going but I haven’t reported on the concert until now. Elton John was amazing! He played for two and a half hours, nonstop, with two encores and even signed autographs for those lucky fans who were one the front row at the concert. He was dressed in the type of coat/jacket that only Elton could pull off successfully, and he looked adorable. I was amazed at his piano playing and how his band could play so cleanly for that long. You name it, they played it. Except for “Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road,” which is one of my favorites, but Elton can no longer hit the high notes, which is my guess as to why he didn’t play that song. The fact that his voice is a bit lower than when he was younger is the only thing I noticed that was different from the Elton John I’ve seen on TV for the last thirty years. He was still energetic and gracious and seemed to love every minute on stage. It was a great concert and a great night altogether.

Before the concert, Auntie Linda and I did a little Christmas shopping in Memphis and then met Marka and her new boyfriend at the Hard Rock Café on Beale Street, which is directly behind the concert hall. We met at five o’clock, which gave us three hours to eat and drink margaritas before the concert. Marka, as I have mentioned in a previous post, is my (and Auntie Linda’s) wonderful, smart-mouth-goddess hairdresser and friend. I’ve known her for ten years, and for the previous nine and a half, she’s said, “I am not the least bit interested in having a boyfriend. I don’t feel the need whatsoever to have to put up with a man and all of his crap.” (Roughly translated.) Oh, how things changed when she met Joe. She’s in love now and Auntie L and I got to meet him, the man who caused her to go back on her mantra and allow herself to be teased unmercifully by everyone she knows. Not only is he a kind, intelligent fellow, but he is absolutely nuts about her as well!

Joe is originally from Iowa, and now lives in Arkansas, but he brought his Midwestern good sense with him and I learned something observing his behavior Friday night. While we were at Hard Rock, we had the most obnoxious waiter I’ve ever encountered. He stood at our table and talked to us most of the night and whenever he would actually leave to get us (ME) another drink, one of us would comment on how he really needed more tables to wait, or anything to get out of our hair! After he served us our food, Joe was absolutely fed up with this, so he simply said to the waiter, “Man, I appreciate the fact that you are taking such good care of us, but we’d really like to eat and just visit with each other, if you don’t mind.” (Roughly translated, again.) The waiter said something about really liking his job, and Joe said something polite about how he was a very good waiter, but we’d like a little time alone, and the waiter got the message, and for the remainder of the night only appeared when we needed something. He was still very polite and we were able to enjoy our time together. What did I learn? That you can be direct, if pleasant, and get what you want and still be treated respectfully by a waiter! This type of direct approach is not the norm in the South. No, we tend to be two-faced and sweet to someone such as this waiter and then talk about him behind his back. OR, we are passive-aggressive, and ignore him and leave him a very small tip. These Southern approaches do not help anyone. It’s the Midwestern approach that was direct, yet polite, that taught the waiter something, hopefully, and me as well! Thank you Joe for teaching me a much appreciated lesson. Marka, you have a great boyfriend, you bitch.