March Madness, Memphis Style-BBQ and Robert Earl Keen

I have to be honest with you - I have been remiss about updating you on strangers and I am here to re-confirm, right here and right now that I will be updating again on a daily basis. There I said it!!!

So I will start with today's stranger and work backwards until I am caught up. I had lunch with Trish today and we decided to eat BBQ at Red, Hot, and Blue. Nothing says springtime in Dallas more than good BBQ. We both went with the pulled pork sandwich - mine with potato salad; hers with a baked sweet potato and both got a side of cole slaw. I do love a "Memphis-style" pulled pork sandwich so I whipped off the top part of the bun and dumped my cole slaw right on top of the pork and smushed the top part of the bun back on and took a Paula Deen size bite of sandwich. Yumbo!!! An hour later as we finished, I surveyed the crowd for stranger. It was hard to choose....everyone in the restaurant seemed to be in a great mood. I sure it had something to do with the fact that the temperature was up in the 60's today while just yesterday we had 5 inches of snow. As Trish and I moved through the restaurant toward the back door, I spotted my stranger at the take-out counter; unwrapped a peppermint and popped it into my mouth and neared a big guy wearing a sweat jacket with a stocking cap propped on top of his head was talking to another lady at the take away counter. We waited until they had finished their conversation and I extended my hand and said, "Hi, my name is Donna".....and I continued my spiel and before I was done - I was shaking hands with Troy. I asked if he was picking an order for he and co-workers and he said, "No, just myself." And then he asked my what had for lunch and I said, "Pulled pork sandwich with potato salad and I ate it all. What did you order?" Troy told me that he had ordered, "Ribs and sausage." "Oh, I love sausage," I said. And went one step further when I pointed at myself and laughed with a "I'm kinda built like sausage. Good Polish/German blood....you have to love sausage!!" I wished Troy a great day and he extended his hand again and said, "Thank you for letting me be your stranger of the day." I shook back and said, "No, thank you." With that Trish and I were out the door, hugged each other good bye, wished each other good luck with our respective universities' goal to make it to the Final 2 of the NCAA March Madness tournament, and promised to talk to each other before the week was out.

I rolled the windows down, put on my sunglasses and turned up the radio. Yes, I was the one you saw singing and dancing in my car. A quick shout out to Robert Earl Keen who wrote a song titled "Barbeque" and with the refrain of:

Barbeque, sliced beef and bread

Ribs and sausage and a cold big red

Barbeque makes old ones feel young

Barbeque makes everybody someone

Hey Troy, Trish, and Robert Earl Keen - next time I am getting sausage and ribs!!!