It was amazing. I was sitting at a coffee shop when a West Texas Free Range Hippopotamus walked in. He ordered double decaf half-caf with four shots of espresso and a dash of cinnamon. I thought wow, why decaf? The hippo, I named him Karl, paid with a credit card. It struck me as odd that a West Texas Free Range Hippo would have a credit card. As Karl left, a Russian satellite crashed on top of him. What are the odds of that?! The most amazing thing, Karl did not spill his coffee! Unfortunately, he was dead. So I got a free double decaf half-caf with four shots of espresso and a dash of cinnamon! Awesome!
Okay, I might have exaggerated a bit. I did, in fact, go to a coffee shop. There were several people there. I did name them all Karl. Karl 1 was man in a suit who appeared to be drinking some frozen/blended coffee drink. He was talking on two cell phones each with a Bluetooth headset. He kept switching between calls. It was quite amusing to watch. He would be carrying on a conversation with one person then have to switch to another call on the other phone. He was very busy with some kind of real estate deal. I could not help but think, “I am glad I am not that guy.” I do not need to look more ridiculous than I already do. There were what appeared to be three college students using laptop computers. The first, Karl 2, a brunette woman in shorts and a t-shirt was on myspace.com responding to messages. The second, Karl 3, a black haired guy in cargo pants with numerous strategically placed holes and a t-shirt seemed to writing a paper. The third, Karl 4, was a blonde woman in calf length pants and some kind of shirt with thin shoulder straps. I could not position myself to see what she was working on. What struck me was the number of people who had laptops. Ten years ago, in a similar venue, you would not see the same distribution of technology. The other aspect that I found intriguing was the lack of communication between the patrons of the establishment. Everyone was absorbed in their own worlds. They did not even notice that I had entered and was observing them. Perhaps they did not want to make eye contact, or maybe they were distracted by Karl 1’s strange conversation. It was difficult not to eavesdrop. Apparently, Karl 1 was having difficulties obtaining a permit due to zoning issues. They had to halt construction until the permit was approved and it was costing the company $20,000 a day! I would be concerned as well. After an hour of the this, I decided to leave as nothing new had occurred.
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3 comments:
You always make me laugh Eric! A coffee shop is definitely the place for oberservation. Based on your post I wonder, when did coffee shops even become famous? When did people start going there to study or work? And why? And of course, technology is alway worth reflecting on. It always stops me silent to think that less than 20 years ago, people actually had to be at home to receive a call. If you missed it, then,... well, you missed it. What would we do without our cell phones? And our laptops? We might actually sit at home more. I myself am indeed typing this on a laptop... =)
*Thinging out loud* Karl, the West Texas Free Range Hippopotamus...why does that sound familiar? Hmmmmm. *Scratching head and thinking to myself...*
Oh my gosh! I totally dated that guy a couple of years ago! He's dead? Wow...life is so fragile. He always thought the satellites were after him. I guess he was right.
I love your social commentary on the guy with two cell phones. Personally, I think men who carry more than one paging device (beepers, cell phones, etc.) are trying to overcompensate for something. Your story takes me back to my days selling cell phones at Alltel. The guys like you describe were always the biggest "jerks" to the reps there. I actually had a man tell me once, when he knew I wasn't going to be able to save him any money on his bill, "I've got the vaseline, go ahead and f*** me." I then asked him to "bend over." I then saw my supervisor on his way over. Bad idea. You want some fertile ground for social commentary, just go to the cell phone store!
Lol, we call people like Karl 1 "blue tools" back in VA. It makes you think that we are certainly advanced beings to be able to carry on two different conversations using two different devices at the same time (not that I am capable of that, but it seems that some people are). That's interesting that one of the girls was updating myspace info in the coffee house - from what little I have seen of myspace it seems like nothing gets put on there that I would be willing to let others see in public. Perhaps the allusion of anonymity made her feel bold.
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