underdogishere

We were grabbing a late bite of breakfast at Burger King. The place was mostly empty. In the booth next to us there was a young couple, both overweight, he in a bright blue t-shift that said "Easily Distracted," her in something forgettable. Between them on the table was an infant, perhaps a girl, strapped into one of those carrier thingies with the big handle.

They finished eating, and he stood up to dump their tray into the trash. Then she stood up. Then they walked away. Judi watched them over my shoulder until finally she said, in an incredulous voice, "They both went into the bathrooms!"

I turned around, and sure enough, neither of then was in sight. We turned to look at their table. Their table where their infant girl was still strapped into her carrier, waving her arms and legs. They had gone off to the bathrooms and left their baby unattended on the table.

If I had had any desire to be a dad, and have my very own baby daughter to raise, that would have been my moment, right then.

A few minutes passed. Then dad and mom emerged from the bathrooms, he first, then her. We noticed that she had taken her purse to the bathroom with her. She hadn't wanted to leave her purse unwatched, but her kid was another matter. They gathered up their little girl and left.

Separate incident: Leaving the Burger King, we got behind an SUV with a bumper sticker that said:

I (heart) MY WIFE

If I could, I would have liked to ask the driver -- a middle-aged guy with thinning buzz-cut hair and a mustache and short beard shot with gray -- why he felt as though he needed to announce this fact to the general public. I mean, wouldn't that have been the default assumption? Had something happened to cause the public-at-large to doubt this guy's love for his wife, and he felt as though he had to set the record straight? If so, what was it that had happened? Because I would really like to know how one gets into a situation like that.

As it turned out, the day was just getting started....

Labels: Out and About, Seen