October 27th, 2009

Michelle.

Michelle was my waitress today at Cracker Barrel. I was looking through a travel brochure for Staunton, VA when she approached my table. "Oh! Are you going to Staunton?", she asked. I told her that my darling friend, Valerie, was moving to a little town near Staunton and

that I did plan to visit there.

Michelle told me that she used to live there, when she was married. I said that it must be so pretty this time of year with the leaves turning and falling. She said, "Oh, you don't know how! One morning, the first year that I lived there, I looked outside and the whole earth was covered in yellow in orange leaves with sunshine glowing off of them. I wanted to take a picture, but thought that a picture wouldn't be enough so I got the video camera out. My husband asked me what I was doing, and I told him, 'I'm videotaping the leaves!'. He said, "You expecting them to start doing tricks or something?' I said no. But I just kept on taping, back and forth, and back and forth covering as far as I could see. It was so pretty".

I thanked her for telling me about it. She said, "There are real pretty buildings there, too". I told her I would try to go very soon so as not to miss the blanket of leaves that

will soon cover the town.

She nodded in encouragment.

A couple of minutes later she came back to the table and said,

"I forgot to ask! Can I bring you something to eat?"