Stroked Ego

Yesterday, I was buzzing about as usual and wound up stopping for a quick burger at the Hardee's near home. Now, I like Hardee's alright, but I do not eat there often because there are other places that I usually eat. But yesterday I stopped for a little bit of a change from my normal routine.

Needless to say, I did not recognize any workers. But that did not stop me from being my normal, overly friendly self. When the cashier spoke into her headset and her voice was broadcast over the loudspeaker, I commented.

"I bet you have a good time with that. Do you ever sing into it?" (Do you see where this is leading?I was thinking of my "15 minutes of fame" promotion.)

An ear to ear grin responded to me with, "Mm Hmm. All the time when nobody is around." I just smiled and went to find a seat while my order was being prepared.

A few minutes later, when the girl brought my burger and fries to my table, I told her about my blog and asked if she might like the information about my "15 minutes of fame" promotion. You should have seen her eyes light up! As it turns out, she is a University of Milwaukee student and she is a creative writing major with a passion for music. She was very pleased to speak with an award-winning author and happily took the information for my promotion. (I really hope she participates!)

The young woman left on break just before I finished eating, but here is the fun thing. When I got up to put on my jacket and clean up, a different worker scurried over to my table to bus it FOR me. Now how often has that ever happened to you at a fast food restaurant?

Alright, so that was yesterday at lunch. Then today I discovered my blog feed has some re-posters copying my content (which is fine -- I will just make sure to include my name in all my posts) and that boosted my ego considerably. THEN today for dinner, I took Anne to the Texas Roadhouse. We got seated in the bar area. I greatly prefer to be seated in the dining area when there is a bar in a restaurant and commented to Anne about my displeasure. We were all set to ask our server for a different seat when she came to the table and recognized me!

"You're an author. Right?"

I just grinned at Anne (who rolled her eyes and hung her head low, as if to say, "Oh, no. Not another one of these servers who feeds my crazy mother's delusion). She knew before I even said the word that I was thinking it, "Mm hmm. Famous!"

Oh, how I enjoy people agreeing that I am famous when Anne is with me! Needless to say, we ate dinner in the bar tonight.

While there, the little redish-haired waitress saw us and stopped by our table. She was very impressed to hear my news about the awards my books won. She even perked up her ears a little when I mentioned my "15 minutes of fame" promotion -- just a little. Not too long later, the manager showed up at our table. He was doing his rounds, of course, but he very much seemed to enjoy meeting us and even offered us his name. I am pretty sure he will recognize us when we come in again.

All in all, I have had a nicely stroked ego over the last couple of days. I am just enjoying it while it lasts. :-)

~ Beth Durkee, award-winning author