Today and into the Rest of a Year with Coffee
“Can I put a table out?” asks a middle aged man, in for his morning cup of coffee, conversing with the girl behind the counter. He’s referring to the lack of outside seating that has been arranged as the two baristas open up shop for the earlier am crowd.
“Oh yeah, I’ll do that,” she replies, pouring my cup of waking final relaxation after the morning bicycle commute.
“No, no, don’t worry about it.” He grabs a black, metal table and accompanying chair and moves them outside. Upon his return she has his drink ready. “Teamwork,” he jokes.
“Most people just don’t realize how things get to where they are,” she states, matter-of-factly but with the confidence that she’s at least being intelligent and, likely in her mind, profound. “You sit down at a table and just assume it was always like that, but you never think about all of the people who have to bring those tables in and out and wash them and all of the work that goes into getting a cup of coffee here in the morning.”
Her companion, bleached blonde hair that, 10 years ago, would have been considered alternative, even punk, but now is simply fashionable. “Life is a series of decisions made behind our backs…”
The Internet isn’t working and so I figure out other ways to record myself. It’s the first day back into the routine of getting children off to work after a long and wonderfully arduous summer, packed with road trips and living all over the city, parties and weddings and staying up until 4 or 5am, waking around noon. Now it’s 6:48am sharp, into the shower, through the breakfast, on the road and get where you’re going by 8:10. Such is the life of the living man.
Up Next: Time and Decisions