Friday, June 22, 2007

Overheard in Philadelphia

Monday morning I was at the Philadelphia Airport grabbing a cup of coffee at Cibo Bar in the B terminal. It was before 7 AM, so I was not yet fully functional. A woman was seated next to me, working diligently on her laptop and PDA. She was no-nonsense.

I overheard her first call. "I'm just going to put this out there," she remarked assuredly. "How the FUCK are we going to meet this deadline?!"

I liked her.

A few moments later, she asked for her check, but not before instructing the bartender to "put their first round on my tab." She gestured to the other end of the bar, where four servicemen had just sat and ordered.

"It's four shots of Grey Goose; is that alright?" The bartender asked.

"Yes - whatever they want."

The bartender doled out the shots and informed the military men that the round was on the "lady in the corner." They chorused "Thank you, ma'am" in unison.

"Don't mention it," the woman said as she quickly gathered up her things to head to her gate. "I'd cheers with you if I didn't have meetings all day."

And the multitasker was off.

And my eyes welled with tears.

Because damn - that was classy.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

My mom appreciates the recognition...

Anonymous said...

I rarely comment, but this is deserving of a "thank you for sharing this story."

This made me smile.

Homevalley said...

God - it just makes me want to buy drinks for every military man I see. And cookies. And extravagant gifts. No way to say thank you.