Lucille

Lucille at Trip’s Diner in St. Petersburg

Beyond having coffee in the morning, I don’t have a routine here, or anywhere. I do things more than once, at about the same time, but I don’t do things with consistency. I wish I did. I like the idea of setting an alarm to get up at the same time everyday. Something like 5:30am. Then I would do a half hour of yoga asana and breathing, make myself some life-enhancing detox tea, and then get at some kind of language study, possibly Sanskrit. I would do chores every day from 10am to noon and then have a healthy vegan lunch after which I would check the internet for the first time in the day.

Etc.

In Tampa, I tend to go back to the same places, places that have given me some kind of good solace or carbohydrate. The other day I went back to a Village Inn and had a very similar time to other times I’ve been there, including sitting at a giant booth with lots of space for my reading and eggs over easy done perfectly.

Slowly I add new places to my list.

On a recent Saturday I was at a big used book store in St. Petersburg, Wilson’s Book World on Dr Martin Luther King Jr Street.* This is a long street running from downtown to Gandy Boulevard (and the Gandy Bridge back to Tampa) about 97 avenues away.  Usually I travel north and south on 4th Street, but this year I have been making an effort to get to know MLK better. It goes through several different neighbourhoods, from industrial to affluent. Wilson’s is at about 24th Avenue, so almost a quarter of the way from downtown to Gandy.

Anyway across the street from Wilson’s Book World is Trip’s Diner, looking very busy and hipsterish, so I can’t make myself go over for brunch or whatever. There are many things I can do, and many more that I cannot. The next Tuesday I go back. I think Tuesday will be quieter. Not so much.

It’s a cool day so nobody is sitting outside. It is jammed with all kinds of folks. On a wall are Best Of plaques from Creative Loafing, which is the Coast or Now of Tampa. After maybe 10 minutes waiting I am offered a seat at the counter. This is great. I don’t read but instead look around at the action behind the counter. There’s some system at play, where the plates of food are passed through from the kitchen to a guy who adds the eggs and sauces, and a few other things, and then yells for the wait person to collect them.

It’s really for everyone. The staff all wear black and many of the young ones sport tats and piercings. There are plenty of older wait staff too. Everyone is hustling.

I get eggs and bacon and toast. The jam and jelly come in three big glass pots. None of that  Sunspun red radioactive shit. I put a lot of the marmalade on my toast. My mother loved marmalade (Robertson’s) and my sister makes it.

Two stools down is Lucille. She sits on the stool at the corner of the counter; many staff hustle back and forth around her. They all know her and they all stop for moment to see how she’s doing. In a lull I lean over and say hello. She says she always has scrambled eggs and a burnt english muffin.

Lucille has a perfect manicure with coral polish. There is a lot of coral nail polish in Tampa. It makes me think the time for my first mani-pedi has come.

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*Today is MLK Day, a national holiday. A little later there will be a parade over in the Ybor City/Seminole Heights area. I have been to it before and I’m not sure if I’ll go today.