holy-cow.se : Out and About (With Marie)

By Marie Anne Greene

For those of you who are familiar with Rhonda Williams and Stana St. Ana of Femulate or Kandi of Kandi’s Land you will know these ladies are not shrinking violets. They are out and about in different venues. Kandi is a Volunteer hostess at many Museums and Church events in the Cleveland area while Rhonda enjoys a variety of clubs and groups in the sun of Florida and Stana never ceases to explore New England. Well Our Gal Marie also has her own “Out and About excursions” and always is looking for others, however, one of them has become an almost a daily ritual.

As you may recall Marie Anne incorporated a mile-long walk into her morning regime at least five days – mostly six days a week. The Walking Trail has a varied terrain. It is relatively level as it passes behind Marie’s Cottage, then proceeds through a rough downward stretch, then back up a relative long hill, levels off and passes through a tall mature pine forest eventually opening onto to the edge of a manicured grassy flat area which includes a black-topped running path, punctuated periodically by exercise stations.

At the far side of this area sits a row of picturesque businesses. These include an American Coffee & Wine Café and plus Asian and Italian restaurants. The Café is largely alive in the morning and afternoon, while the others become active in the late afternoon and on into the evening. All three have latticed covered outdoor patios either in the rear or on the side and are pleasantly surrounded by a plethora of plants and the atmosphere enhanced by soft instrumental music. When he first moving into the area, Bruce had a habit of dropping by the Café for a Chai-Tea pick-me-up in mid-afternoon but gradually ceased this daily ritual and had not visited it in more than five months. Ownership had changed in this interim as did most but not all of the staff.

On this particular day Marie chose the typical womanly attire for her walk-in-the -woods. It was pink Skinny Jeans, a white cotton loose fitting over-blouse, woman’s pink tennis shoes, sun glasses (often propped on her head), light makeup and pink lipstick and simple jewelry – Engagement ring, pink bracelet and matching wrist watch.

Marie had decided today was the day to visit (revisit) the Café, this time for a morning coffee and a munchy. She folded a ten-dollar bill into the shallow pocket of her jeans and headed out as usual on her morning walk, with a bottle of water in her left hand and her right arm swinging straight from her shoulder and her right hand angled akimbo outward. The walk was accomplished without any mishaps passing within a few feet of a more than eight other walkers, all women, singletons and duos and all coming from the opposite direction, greeting each other with a hand wave and either a “Hi or Morning” as they passed. This new and healthy activity added an additional dimension to the pleasure of being a woman.

As our GAL came out of the woods, she decided today was the day to venture into the Cafe for a cup of coffee and detoured across the road and placed her water bottle and sun glasses on one of the patio tables. Several couples and trios of women occupied half the tables and Marie’s entrance through the Patio door into the Café proper barely drew a glance. She calmly proceeded to the self-service coffee bar, chose and fixed her coffee and carried it to the cashier, asking for one of the petite bagels with cream cheeses. She exchanged pleasantries with the other cashier and fished the crumpled bill out of the tiny jeans pocket and gave the Gal the bill.

At this point the first cashier returned with the bagel and asked Marie if she wanted to join the “Morning Coffee Club”. Our Gal declined with a cheerful “No Thanks, not today”.

While this business dialog was ongoing, the male member of the next couple in line, commented to Marie – “Pink must be your color” (noting the Jeans and tennis shoes) and possibly the Pink Rose bracelet and matching watch band. Marie responded cordially and with an over the shoulder smile said, “Yes, thank you, it is and it is one of my favorite colors”. She doubted he had noticed the pink blusher or pink lipstick she was wearing as he was standing behind and to her left, however she was confident had he seen these two accents of femininity they would have certainly confirmed his observation about her color presence.

Turning back to the cashier, she accepted her change, tucked into the tiny pocket and walked out to the patio with the cup in hand and settled at the table which she had staked out with her water bottle and her sun glasses. Once comfortable in the chair and one leg crossed over the other, and Marie holding the hot cup with both hands took a sip of the coffee and after nibbling on the bagel with its raspberry cream oozing from the edges made her decision to join the “Club” next week, hopefully with the possibility of establishing some new girl friendships. That is her hope. Only time and chance will see!