Judge not, etc.

We attended the opera on Friday night at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, and it was a wonderful rendition of "Don Pasquale" by the Atlanta Opera. In case you don't know, it's a comedy about a wealthy old man looking for love in all the wrong places while his nephew is drooling over his inheritance.

The rendition was funny, the story line not so much. I guess I'm just not into elder abuse and the plot about a faux marriage to a young beauty who becomes an abusive beast was disheartening!

Anyway, we arrived extra early because it was the first game at the new Atlanta (Cobb) Braves Stadium. We didn't eat beforehand and we were "hangry" after the performance!

There isn't much open in outer Cobb County after 11, so we stopped at the Waffle House near the house. The place was a disaster and, from what I could see, there were just two young men at the grill. I took one look and said, "This is disgusting. We're not eating here!"

As we turned around to leave, another customer was leaving. She greeted us and remarked, "Y'all just missed the lacrosse team. About 20 of them ... They left the place a mess. And they tipped the kid just seven dollars." 

I was shocked. I posted on Facebook, "Wow. If it was your lacrosse team at the Waffle House on Sandy Plains, all I can say is you should be embarrassed by them and for them. The woman told me which school it was."

But I was embarrassed for myself, too. My first inclination had been to blame the employees for not taking care at night. Had the customer not said anything, I'd be all over FB complaining about the restaurant.

We headed for the nearby late-night Arby's drive-through instead that night. The door was locked already but the window was still open.

A young man was wandering in the parking lot and walked toward the car window to ask us to make a call for him because his car battery was dead. I didn't see his car around and he held up what appeared to be a dead phone. Nervous, we told him to ask at the Arby's. As we were leaving, we watched him asking to be let in to make a call, or whether they would make a call for him to get help.

I don't know whether they let him in; probably not. There are several nearby gas station/convenience stores he could have tried. If it was indeed an innocent request, the frustrated young man probably went home to tell his family about the racists in Cobb who wouldn't help him.

What he probably didn't know is that the Arby's was held up recently. Employees obviously know this and are frightened it will happen again. As nearby residents, we knew it, too. But as we drove away, I felt terrible, imagining if it were my sons in that situation. It still bothers me. Then I remind myself about the robbery.

And the moral of the story, for me and for that young man? **Something something about not being so quick to judge a situation when you come in at the tail end.