Just DO it! and I am not sorry

Been saying I needed to write. Been saying I wanted to write. I am here. Now. Just do it! (I need to be much more spontaneous at times.)

I had a birthday last week. There are perks to getting older. You know what you like, and you know what you don't like. And you know that you don't have to do what you don't want to do!

Case in point. I went to a football game with my husband Saturday night. Courtesy of my son who was out-of-town. I hate football. (Sorry, Matthew - Good thing he doesn't know about this blog.) I have never been able to keep up with the ball with all of those men on top of it. I have thought I should learn to like it to "share" something with my husband, son, daughter, and the general public. Even my daughter can talk the lingo and seems to not just KNOW the game, but LIKE the game.

It was warm outside. No, for 6 pm... it was HOT. The crowd was packed in around us. The stand seats are so close together, and you have people stepping on your toes, and the man behind me had his knees in my back the whole time. Well, not the whole time. When the zillion kids around us kept going in and out, and in and out, he was having to jump up and down and up and down.

I made it to halftime. "Our" team was comfortably ahead. I wanted something to drink (my 2nd), but the drinks, including water, are so blamed expensive there. And so, I did the only thing I could.

I left and walked to the shopping center not far from the stadium. I first went to Starbucks and used a gift card to get me a Raspberry Mocha Frappacino. I had a magazine in my purse (always prepared!) and sat and leafed through it, until I had cooled down, and the drink was gone.

Then I walked down to Borders. I had a gift card from there also, but didn't find anything. I actually wasn't even looking really hard. I was more interested in people watching. This bookstore in downtown Nashville and has a different ambiance than the ones close to where I live.

I noted 3 sets of people. One was a man. A black man in painter's clothing. He was in the music area, with headphones on over the bandanna on his head. Eyes closed, he was smiling and swaying to the music. Whether he had had a good day or a bad day, whether life was going good or bad for him, he was there, in Borders, at 8:30 pm CST, enjoying a short respite from life, and happy.

Then there was the couple who were looking at the DVDs of plays. I heard one comment that he had seen "Host" at the local Belcourt theater. His middle-aged, same sex partner, said perhaps they could go see it together sometime.

And then there was the middle-aged couple who preceded me into the store. A woman in a wheelchair, with a cute shaggy dog on a leash, accompanied by a gentleman... blind, I discovered. The man listened to her verbal instructions as to where the doors were, and that I was standing behind them. I talked to him as I passed through behind the wheelchair, so that he would know when to move on through the door. I came upon this couple several times in different areas of the store. First, they went to the Bestseller section, and she told him about the books, reading some of the flaps on the books they were not familiar with. Her voice was interrupted from time to time, as he bent and kissed her right on! Later, I saw them upstairs in the audiobook section.

The point is, this bookstore was a haven for several of us. An enjoyable time away from the rest of the world. All kinds of people, all ages and stages, finding fulfillment in something they like. A short distance away was a football stadium filled with people, all ages and stages, finding fulfillment in something they like.

And so, I have been to my 1 college (Vandy) football game for the season. I'm thinking that I might go to 1 Titans game, and then 1 Vandy men's basketball game, and 1 Vandy women's basketball game, and I am done for the season!