Kelly Nolan plays the women’s card all the time at the Bog, a bar and restaurant where she works several nights a week. She is a bartender, waitress, busperson, greeter, sometimes for 100 people at once, and another bunch out back throwing horseshoes. She serves drinks at the bar, comes out to wait on tables, take orders, set the tables, clear the tables, ferry food from the kitchen, ask everyone every few minutes if they have everything they need or are okay.

We sit in amazement at her poise and charm and good cheer. If she is ever exhausted or annoyed or overworked, she doe snot show it. She is hard-working gracious and empathetic to everyone, asking how everyone is, how they like their food. No matter how crowded the bar/restaurant is, she always appears in short order, takes everyone’s orders, brings the check when people are done.

I like the woman’s card idea, it works for me. I see women as being strong, competent and more compassionate than men.  They seem more include to notice and fix problems rather than lament them, complain about them, or look to fight.

They juggle so many things at once, and are expected to do so much more than men. In the excitement, chaos , noise and hub-bub of a bar (with a big long bar and a pool table in the back), Kelly is a sea of calm and strength, a whirling dervish with a smile, that smile simply keeps this small and potentially turbulent warm and bright.