PEOPLE WATCHING

I find people fascinating.  They are interesting, quirky, a mystery and telling all at the same time.  I find what they look like, what they wear, how they look, how they carry themselves, who they are with - all things that make up the pieces to any of us in life, compellingly addictive to watch.  Sitting in the outside patio of a trendy restaurant in a lake shore town last evening, I people watched.  The restaurant, being in a lake shore town and being a bit pricey, catered to more the middle aged and up crowd.  It was one of those restaurants where the cheese plate didn't hold a piece of swiss or colby.  It had cheese like; black ash and goat cheese with strawberries and blueberries on stop of sesame seed wafers drizzled with organic honey.  The place was linened and modern.  Retreating to the outdoor patio, we ordered sangrias which have so little alcohol in them one might consider putting them in a baby's bottle (seriously kidding!).  As we sipped on our summer drinks, we watched people.  At the table next to us were 4 ladies in their late 40's to mid 50's talking about authoring books, the christian church, and the catholic church.  They were not wearing wedding rings and I surmised that they were lesbians by the way they talked to one another, the clothes they wore and just their presence.  Soon seated after us was a couple that appeared to be late 30's to low 40's.  If not on their first date with each other, maybe their second one.  She was adorned with big green earrings and a big HUGE green flower ring on her middle finger.  She wore a green tank top with ruffles which was tight fitting - highlighting her very large breasts.  The top coordinated with a sport skirt with a greenish flower of print sewn on the gray skirt.  She finished off the outfit with greenish wedge shoes.  If I had to guess, she was divorced with a couple of kids (verified later when she pulled out a pic of her kids to show her date), hair dyed and swept up with a barrette, and small wrinkle lines at the edge of her eyes.  She was a talker too.  Her date appeared to be a great listener or was in his own happy place in his head as she droned on and on for the next hour.  You could tell that they weren't far in their relationship yet - no touching of any kind, and by the conversation, just hadn't had long periods of time with each other yet.  Both had 2 martinis while sitting there.  I could feel some of their pain - middle aged and dating!  A couple of tables away the hostess sat a couple, he in hisy early 50's and she not far behind.  He wore a red shirt, had a receding forehead hairline, black sort of dirtyish shoes and casual sport pants.  By appearances and body language he seemed a bit nervous, socially inept and like a junior high boy with awkwardness trapped in a grown man's body.  His date (neither were wearing rings and gave no signs of marriage), was very slender with sagging breasts that gave her age away even though she looked younger than her age.  Her fashion consisted of a frayed at the bottom blue jean skirt (very short), high heeled wedge sandals and a white t-shirt with rhinestones embedded all over it.  The comfort level she seemed to have far surpassed his.  She leaned in to hold his hand several times or give him a kiss and was met with some pursed lips and a pat on her arm.  He did loosen up later, after drinking and eating, where I saw him slip his hand down her backside to her rear end right after taking a clam off the plate and pretending it was talking to her:)  Our guess was that they were dating but probably not long.  You could tell they had been intimate in their relationship.  In the clear back corner was a table of 4 men ranging in age from late 40's - 60 ish.  One came adorned with a Jason Mraz hat and sunglasses.  He took neither off the whole time even though it was evening and we weren't in the sun.  The other men at the table appeared, by either dress or mannerisms, to be gay also.  The man in the hat was a people watcher and I watched him watching others and me as I watched others too.  He was distracted of sorts.  Seated next to them was a bi-racial couple - a black man and a very neat and orderly white woman both in their 30's.  He seemed somewhat angry or detached when they first sat down, but her smile and sweetness that seemed to be all around her, softened him quickly.  Across the patio an older man and woman came in.  He spoke to the waitress telling her that there would be 6-7 altogether.  Soon after a gay couple in their 40's came, going to that table where the one man, maybe the man's son, embraced his dad.  The man who embraced his dad began to look around the patio for extra chairs.  He walked to our table where we said he could have our other two chairs.  About 15 minutes before we left the table next to us with the 4 lesbian woman left and were replaced by two couples in their mid-late 60's.  The one gentleman was sporting a very loud print shirt with pleated tan pants that were cuffed.  I think he was about 5'2" and I leaned over and said to my husband, "I think I could definitely take this guy:)"  His wife was a few inches taller than him.  The other man in the quartet looked like he wasn't too awful thrilled to be there.  Believe it or not the woman in the large green ring and earrings was still talking:)  We wondered if her date was just putting up with it hoping to have it end up with sex if he just endured!!  I wondered about the lives they each had, the hurts or baggage they carried, if they knew anything of Jesus, what they did for a living, why they were there. Then we entertained the idea of what others thought while watching us.  We laughed a lot, had a couple of drinks, held hands, talked, and kissed a bunch.  Did they think we were on a date?  Would anyone in there think a married couple our age could have that much fun in public?