My Overactive Imagination

This has been a week, and it is only Wednesday!  I have been struggling with work and that my expectations for the job I am in will not be reality this year.  There is so much work that I need to make up for the years of not having a school counselor.  This year I have realized will be a clean up year.  Not really anything I want to do, but necessary to make everything run smother. 
As a result of work wearing me down I just have been a terrible "domestic engineer."  On a side note, one of the guys I work with came to work in jeans one day.  He announced to the staff that he was in jeans because his domestic engineer did not do the laundry that week.  In other words a grown man wore jeans because his wife did not do the laundry yet.  I walked away from that moment wanting a domestic engineer for my life.  Ya know just some one to cook and clean.
Anyway... Because I am my own domestic engineer, I have not been so good at the cooking.  I came home and cleaned my whole apartment because my landlady wanted to show it to a potential renter.  I took May to dinner at TGI Frida' and made her order an appetizer because it was happy hour.
At the table directly across from us there as an old man eating alone.  I was so sad to see him there by himself.  He just sat there and looked at the table. I am almost in tears remembering him. I thought to myself that I should have invited him to eat with us, but I was a wuss and I did not ask him.    
I worked at a nursing home the summer after my first year of college.  It was one of the most difficult jobs I have ever had.  I saw people sit alone for weeks, their families would not come and visit them.  I saw a women who only had two outfits that she would alternate wearing throughout the week.  I went to my church and gathered donations for her.  I learned so much about dignifying people that society has forgotten.  Even though working at the nursing home was not fun, was sad, and honestly had more poop than I would ever care to remember, it was one of the best things I have done in my life. 
This old man at TGI Fridays reminded me of the lovely people I worked with.  I then started to think about who he was and why he was all alone for dinner.  I then let my imagination run wild.  I decided that Wednesday was the night that his wife and him went to eat out.  They thought it would be quirky and cute to eat at Fridays on Wednesdays.  His wife died last year and he hasn't been able to let her go. Every Wednesday he goes to Fridays and sits alone and thinks of her.  He orders the same steak and does not touch his broccoli.  I was about to break down crying at my table when I imagined all of this.   I tell ya I should write a movie! 

It was pretty much like Carl and Ellie all over again.

I told May my story and her first reaction was that I need to write a drama TV show.  She then said, "Why didn't you invite him over?"  I told her I was scared.  She laughed at me, as she should have.  I realized that the amount of time and energy that I put into imagining a fake life for Henry, oh yeah I gave him a name too, I could have spent the time to find out who he really was.  I am not always good about bringing dignity to those who deserve it.  I am not fond of myself tonight, but I do hope that reflecting on something small like this will help me have courage in the future to try and be a blessing to others.