Malls = Food Courts
Just as we were wondering where two of my friends were who were supposed to be in our wedding, my phone started to ring with one of their names. Tabby and I were to have our rehearsal that afternoon and I had not heard from either of them all day. In fact, I didn’t know if they had made it to San Antonio yet. This is how our conversation transpired over the road noise.
“Well… We are going to be a little late for the rehearsal dinner I think,” friend one admitted.
“Why? Are y’all ok?” I asked. I could hear mumbling in the background and some arguing.
“Yeah, we are fine, genius here just…” a scuffle ensued as the two grappled with the phone.
“I thought it was in San Angelo ok!? It’s not that far off the path!” Friend two stated.
I filled Tabby in on the hiccup to our plans realizing that I was both more amused and less irritated than her. However, I had a little sympathy for their mistake. A year prior to this moment I had made a blunder that is embarrassing, sad, and hilarious. You may never trust my intellect again on anything after learning this but it is too good not to share.
Tabby and I had just kindled our friendship into a dating relationship over the end of her undergraduate career at ACU. She was ending her senior year as I was planning my schedule for my second senior year. The problem with dating a highly competent and productive person is that they get all of the cool internships. I learned that spring that Tabby’s internship would be a year long stint as an assistant to a Senator’s wife in Washington DC. In Tabby’s mind this was the end of us most likely. I’m dense, knew I loved Tabby, and told her I wouldn’t let the distance be a problem.
A few months later she had finished up in Abilene and was setup in her new tiny apartment in beautiful Arlington, Virginia. I remember gazing out at the monuments as the plane came in on its final into Reagan Airport. All of crazy politics aside, the city has a majestic feel to it with all of the monuments and capital buildings. It would not intimidate me though since I’m an urban warrior. 🤪
If you’ve never traveled to DC you may not be aware that the cost of existing is significantly higher than just about anywhere else. DC has Henrietta Texas beat very handily. My hotel selection was one that kept me as close to downtown as I could afford without declaring bankruptcy. I was able to see Tabby briefly after landing and had learned just before the trip that she was needed to be with her boss almost all day for a special event that was happening. I would just take that time to explore the city.
Morning came soon enough, and since there weren’t any breakfast places anywhere near the pretty good Western Motel, I lined up with a plethora of tourists to hop on a bus that would take us to the metro stop. Tabby had told me the Metro would get me anywhere I could want to go. How hard can it be to figure out a subway system right?
I found myself standing outside the Ritz Carlton and looking at an escalator heading straight into the ground. Easy enough. Just then I literally bumped into a guy and after we both mumbled our apologies we stopped for a second.
“Where are you from?” he asked in his deep southern accent.
“Texas” I replied in a friendly but curious way as to why he wanted to know. “Where are you from?”
“Georgia. Company sent me up here for training. I can’t wait to get out of this city. Hey, today I’m headed out and I ended up buying this all day metro pass that I don’t need. Do you want it? Would rather give it to another outsider than the rude people up here.”
He pretty much gushed all of this out before I could get a word into the conversation.
“Sure! Thanks?” I had just stepped off the bus, literally walked into my new friend from Georgia, and didn’t even have to stop and buy a metro pass. My day was starting right! Except for the fact that I realized I had eaten a very light dinner, not much for lunch the day before, and had not had breakfast. At nearly two hundred pounds, I’ve clearly never missed a meal, my stomach was starting to rumble in embarrassing ways. No problem! I’m in a city, tons of opportunity, people, ideas, and most importantly food establishments.
Free metro ticket in hand I glided down the escalator into a cavernous tunnel with tons of people. I noted that there was another escalator just opposite of mine with quite a few people going up and down into a building. No time for exploring though as I was on a mission to find food. A quick glance at the clock in the metro showed it was only 9:15 AM. I’m sure I’d find something to eat quick.
My hollywood research on metros proved to be accurate as I’m pretty sure the first car I got into was out of any number of scenes from any number of movies. Maybe metros are just that boring. Either way, I didn’t really feel like pontificating. I just wanted to put some food in my stomach.
The first few stops did not look promising and I started to get concerned about my plan to find food. That is until I heard the family of four in front of me discussing their plans. Now, I try not to eavesdrop but I did pay attention to their conversation because families with teenagers tend to stay near food. Teenagers eat a lot of food. The dad took the initiative to set the plan for the family.
“Ok kids, I’m thinking we go to the mall first, we can walk around and see what’s there, then make our plans afterwards.”
Wait! The mall? Perfect! First, this is a very boring family trip if they are going to explore “the mall” but I’m just glad to know there is a mall and this is the right train to get there. Malls have food courts. Food courts have lots of food that is usually cheap if there is such thing as cheap in DC.
When the stop came I excitedly headed up the escalator into what should have been a glorious food court with columns, monuments, and a Chick-fil-A. Instead I find myself staring at a grass field and cold looking “non-food-courtish” buildings. In front of me is a man who very closely resembled Bob Marley sitting on a bench with a stack of brochures he is handing out. I’m stunned but I come over to him and ask one simple question.
“Excuse me,” I say politely, “Where is the mall?”
A big grin forms across his face as his hands spread out wide with palms up, “This is the mall! Welcome to the mall!” He hands me a brochure. 🤨😡
To this day I wish I would have kept that brochure. I don’t even know what it said. I circled around the “mall” for a long time looking for a building that would have a place to eat. Fitbit wasn’t around at this point otherwise I would have broken mine with the number of steps I took that day. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to pick a random street and veer off in search of a food establishment.
At some point in the afternoon, with my feet burning, I pulled out my Motorola Razr phone to call my best friend, Trent, back in Texas and have him look the streets up on google maps to give me directions to the Smithsonian. I remembered from a trip I took in junior high to DC that there was a McDonalds in that building. Of course, I had gone in the opposite direction, but at least after teasing me a bit he was able to tell me where to go. Sometimes it just takes a friend with a birds eye view to help you know the way I guess.
I don’t know if I was the only person that day to visit the Smithsonian only for the McDonalds, but I was probably the most excited and my order went something like this:
“I’ll have the 20 count please with a large fries.” I may have been salivating as I said this.
“Sure, how many drinks?”
“One sir. Just one.”
Finding a place to eat before yelp came around is hard work! I realized that Tabby was going to meet me at 5:00 when she got off work so I began working my way back to the Metro and found my way to her office via the twisty underground lines. This part of the journey took a couple of hours but, after a few wrong trains and sketchy stops, I made it to her.
We ended up going back to “the mall” the next day and walked around while she gave me a tour of everything around us. When it came time to eat we ended up in an actual mall but I wasn’t sure how we ended up there. There was a big food court and it was delicious. Tabby is used to my sudden loss of attention and changing of subjects but this one caught her off guard.
We were sitting at our table and I kept noticing people going down this escalator and up above the sign really tiny said “METRO”. Next to it I saw double doors going into a fancy foyer and etched on those doors were the words “Ritz Carlton”.
“Excuse me for one second” I said as I hurried from our table across the court.
I looked down the escalators to the metro and realized that the previous day when I was so hungry all I had to do was literally look in front of me. That first escalator I went down had one directly across from it with lots of people going up and down. Yeah, they had shopping bags and the escalator dumped out into that exact food court Tabby and I ate inside.
I share this to say how much I value the great friends and mentors in my life. Just like the day I called my best friend Trent up for directions after wandering around DC like a lost country bumpkin, I’m thankful for the people like him in my life that I can call on when I’m lost or working on getting lost. If I learned anything from that trip, besides how to read a map, plan a little better, and pack a snack, it is the value of having people you can rely on to help get you back on track and point you to truth. Often your true friends will have a much better “birds eye” view of where you are headed and can speak truth to your life even when it’s tough. He did ask me how the heck I ended up all the way where I was, but he also helped me figure out how to get things back on track.
“Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another.”
Proverbs 27:17 NASB
http://bible.com/100/pro.27.17.nasb
Update! Since I wrote this out, I learned the McDonalds in the Smithsonian is permanently closed. Don’t worry though, odds are you have a smart phone or someone near you does and you will realize just how many thousands of places to eat are all around you.