I met someone today who interested me so much more than the rest of the drones of diners who come into the restaurant every day. Sure, we get a mixed bag of folks coming to enjoy what they all claim to be the "best Italian food around," but this woman really just took the cake. She can't have been younger than seventy, and she used one of those wheeled walkers with tennis balls on the two pegs. It was a slow night, and she stood at the counter for a good ten minutes, and we simply chatted.

We both shared our disappointment at the return of colder weather after such a warm spell. I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis when I was fourteen, and every year since I've spent the winters wishing for spring to come early... indeed, Groundhog Day always set me up for a disappointment. I often feel a little awkward talking about it, but I really felt the need to be straightforward when she asked me if I knew anyone with Arthritis. She helped me to laugh it off with talk of creaky knees, and thoughtfully moved the conversation on to something that interested me much more: Theatre.

She had apparently, in her heyday, been quite the actress. The "sidekick" or "best friend" character in all the musicals, of course. She'd only had one starring role she ever cared to remember, and that was in a cheap, low-key production of My Fair Lady - she said that channelling Audrey Hepburn on the stage made the short run, tiny audiences and mediocre reviews all worth it. I got excited, of course, as that's one of my favorites. Since Hepburn's My Fair Lady was released in 1964, I imagine that it was in the late sixties or so, long before shows like Cats and The Phantom of the Opera made complicated productions the thing to do. I asked her what it was like to be involved in theatre "back then," and she told me that it was very different, and wasn't really the "cool thing to do" like it is now. I caught myself laughing that that... when I took theatre courses and spent HOURS after school in the auditorium, our program was sometimes hurting for actors and crew. This was, of course, before Disney's High School Musical made drama the ideal extracurricular activity.

I'm almost ashamed to say that I spent the entire remainder of my shift thinking about what fun it was to be involved in real art, to be a part of an entire production coming to life. We all worked our hands to the bone building those sets every Saturday, passing the OSHA certification exams so we could use the powertools we bought with the money earned from after-school jobs. We considered it our passion, and we all planned on living our lives as starving artists, living for the stage (or, in many cases, backstage) as we struggled to get by.

Boy, how things change. In the necessity to acquire a "real" job many of us were convinced by friends, family and counselors to pursue other majors, and quite a few of us (myself included) haven't set foot behind a curtain since and, as far as I'm concerned, we're the worse for it. One of the hardest things about becoming independent out in the world is letting go of your dreams, something I wish I'd never done.

A good deal of happiness, though, lies in the fact that, ultimately, it's never too late to turn back. I can always go back to counting nails and flipping those soundboard switches, any day I choose. A girl never forgets her first love... I'm just lucky that mine will never run off with a busty blonde in six-inch heels.