Monk Quiche (part two)

Arrived at the Abbey, intact... Not sure where the dangerous road was, but I've been on far worse roads then anything I traveled today.

Currently I'm a local library, I'm not sure why I love going to these small neighborhood libraries, but I do. You really get a sense of the local people...

At the Abbey, walking around, a little lost, I saw my first monk of the weekend... He was bent over watering a small non flowering plant with an aluminum sprinkler can... In a black hooded robe,  with a gray beard, round middle, and large glasses he asked me the most perfect, amazing, monk-type question, in a voice like Burl Ives (the snowman in Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer... "What is it that you seek?"

Now while that is THE BEST question he could ask me, I stumbled, and then answered quite literally... "The guest office" or something like that so on the nose. I mean, with that question, the possibilities of my answer were limitless. "Ultimate Wisdom." "Happiness." "Knowledge." "Enlightenment." "Inner Peace." "True Self Love." Yet I say something so literal.

After all the small pendant around my neck that I've been wearing for weeks now, is all about that... Asking the questions, and being passionate about it. If you don't know, it's an Interrobang symbol from an antique typewriter... (long story and I've blogged about that already)

It's funny, this little dusty town... I suppose all towns are. Between the library and the Abbey I had lunch at a luncheonette recommended to me by a lady named Lou. Lori, the waitress, greeted me and sat me at a booth... She looked at me a little odd when I ordered my meal... I suppose I was a little like Meg Ryan ordering... Is the turkey real turkey? What's the healthiest bread you have? No gravy. Are the potatoes real? Is that like cranberry sauce straight from a can... I further felt like a city boy when two American pickups pulled up out front, and the cowboys that got out, ordered fried food, with French fries, and extra gravy.

No lie, the song "Country Bumpkin" played on the radio as I ate... And reflected on small town life. When two gray hair ladies approached the front door, the Chicken Fried Steak Cowboy got up and opened the door for them... Then he stayed outside to make a cell phone call.  There was something amazingly refreshing about all of that...

The other day when I was an audition, I was about to sign in when a woman entered the waiting room behind me... I left a space above my name on the sign in sheet, and when I was done writing my information, I said to her... "I left a space for you above my name."

She kind of snapped at me... "Why would you do that?!"
"Cause I'm a nice person some times" I replied.
"What if I don't want to sign in above you," she answered. "What if I want the extra time for myself?!"
"Then you can sign in below me. I don't really care."
"I appreciate that." She said as she signed in below my name.
"It doesn't sound like you do." I ended the conversation with.

Anyway, that chick did thank me as she was leaving the office... But it just made me recoil at the time she said it, making me never want to do another nice thing for a chick again... But then, today with the Cowboy and the Elder Women... I was re inspired.

After I was done eating, settled up with Lori, taking her away from sitting next to her Cowboy boyfriend at the counter... I asked... Is there a library in this town... She gave me an answer, almost as perfectly amazing as the monk's question... "Yeah, it's right there. See that flag across the street?"

And sure enough it was just a long softball throw down one of the only side streets in town.

-- Brother Quiche ~ Tom Kiesche

The interrobang (/ɪn'tɛrəbæ,,/) (‽) is a rarely used, nonstandard English-language punctuation mark intended to combine the functions of the question mark (also called the interrogative point) and the exclamation mark (known in printers' jargon as the bang). The typographical character is a superimposition of those two marks. The same effect is also frequently achieved by placing the exclamation point before or after the question mark; e.g., "How could you do such a thing!?" or "How could you do such a thing?!"

Country Bumpkin
Cal Smith
Words and Music by Don Wayne

(peak Billboard position # 1 in 1974)

He walked into the bar and parked his lanky frame upon a tall barstool
And with a long soft Southern drawl said
"I'll just have a glass of anything that's cool"
A barroom girl with hard and knowing eyes slowly looked him up and down
And she thought "I wonder how on earth
That country bumpkin found his way to town"

She said "Hello, country bumpkin"
"How's the frost out on the pumpkin?"
"I've seen some sights but, man, you're somethin'"
"Where'd ya come from, country bumpkin?"

It was just a short year later in a bed of joy-filled tears yet death-like pain
Into this wondrous world of many wonders one more wonder came
That same woman's face was wrapped up
In a raptured look of love and tenderness
As she marveled at the soft and warm and cuddly boy-child feeding at her breast

And she said "Hello, country bumpkin"
"Fresh as frost out on the pumpkin"
"I've seen some sights but, babe, you're somethin'"
"Mamma loves her country bumpkin"

Forty years of hard work later in a simple, quiet and peaceful country place
The heavy hand of time had not erased
The raptured wonder from the woman's face
She was lying on her deathbed knowing fully well her race was nearly run
But she softly smiled and looked into the sad eyes of her husband and her son

And she said "So long, country bumpkin"
"The frost is gone now from on the pumpkin"
"I've seen some sights and life's been somethin'"
"See you later, country bumpkin"

She said "So long, country bumpkin"
"The frost is gone now from on the pumpkin"
FADE
"I've seen some sights and life's been somethin'"