Are You A People Watcher?

As I sit on the deck of one of my favorite establishments enjoying an ice cold beverage of the adult kind, I do a quick sweep of the crowd to see if there is anyone I recognize.  Outside of my usual, and one of my favorite, bartenders and one other "person", given our past, I find it hard to call her a lady, but I do recognize a gal at the table on the other side of the patio

Not knowing anyone else on the patio, made it much easier and less conspicuous to people watch.  In the 35 minutes or so that I sat there enjoying my combo platter and cold Miller Lite, I observed  a few funny things.

First, there was the table with two women in their late 30's to early 40's enjoying their nachos and mikes hard lemonades and being none to discreet with their facial expressions over the table of 8 to 10 people behind me laughing and talking loud.

I will say I did catch a look from them as I sat by myself feasting on my combo platter, just to set the record straight, I did not eat the whole thing, I took the better part of it home to my kids.

To my left sat an elderly couple with three young kids, I'd guess ages 9 to 14.  I assumed that the couple were the grandparents, I know what they say, never assume, it makes an ass of you and me.  Being a mother of two, I could read the kids "I'd rather be at McDonalds" body language as they sat there waiting for their dinner.

As the patio started to fill up we were joined by the biker, the two office ladies, the guy in the cool glasses who came early to save a table for him and his friends and the table of 8 who were enjoying shots and felt that the music sounded better the louder they had the bartender turn it up.

Oh yes, let's not forget the 50 plus women who still dressed and acts like she's twenty something, sadly the lines on her face and hands tell the truth.

As I sat there watching the baseball game on the outside TV screen, while Merle Haggard, Kenny Chesney and Billy Idol blared on the speakers, a gentle breeze blew the loose leaves around the patio, and I couldn't help but take note that of the 25 or 30 people on the patio, only two were smoking.

I'm not saying that it is wrong, just that I thought it was unusual that there weren't more.

As I finished my beer, I decided it was time to make my exit, as I felt the party crowd was about to get into full swing as Jimmy Buffett's "Let's Get Drunk And Screw"  came on the jukebox.

People are funny with their own little habits and gestures, I wonder if when others people watch me what they see.

They say that baseball is the great American pasttime, I think people watching should be ranked number two.