May 18, 2019 at the Court Square Tavern

I closed up Court Square Tavern an hour earlier from the scheduled time of 11:00 p.m. No one was coming in. Charlottesville has moved on from a time when younger people would drop in early on their way to the rest of their night. My last customer left at 8:00 pm, but I had a good time with the people who did come in for a relatively busy dinner hour. I made six meals in all, plus one appetizer for Lloyd and Susan who I didn't get a chance to talk to because I was busy cooking steak sandwiches for the four people who came in. I didn't know them at all, but when you come in to the tavern and want food, I'm going to do my best to make it for you. The four people have a mother who is in hospice here in Charlottesville, and they have been hoping to make it to the tavern in the weekends they've been coming here. They are now added to the many, many people who have come in who I've been able to serve a meal. My goal with every stranger who comes in is to make them leave feeling good and happy. I don't do it for the money as much as I do it for the sense that I've made people a bit happier about things. If only for a moment. I may work next Saturday, but the reality is that this town has grown up a lot in the past 15 years since I started working there, back in August 2004, at a time when my life was hopelessly lost. I found myself there, and working there gave me confidence to restart my career, a career that still continues to this day though I am in a different place now. I'm glad that Mason came in tonight. She always gives me a hard time about everything and is really tough on me. We always have almost the exact same conversation every time. She tells me to get over myself, and to calm down. I tell her I cannot because there's so much left to do. There's so much I need to do. I don't know what happens next. Tonight, I know I had a good evening, even though the place I work now isn't quite the same place I worked in the past. Sometimes I sense that there aren't too many more new memories to be made there, but I hope I'm wrong. Now it's past 11:00 pm and the mockingbird begins to sing outside. Perhaps I should listen.