Friday, October 06, 2006

tour de cafe

i'm so bored at work today. the atmosphere here this cold grey friday is so dead that it feels a lot like a morgue, not that i've ever been in a morgue. i decided to go get something to eat to appease my boredom which I know is wrong, wrong, wrong. on my way out the door, i find my banana in my bag and eat it, thereby ruining my appetite and making my quest for food even more wrong. Ah well.

there's this nearby cafe that i love at 6:30 in the morning. linda and I go there as they are just opening. it's empty, they play Aretha Franklin, Al Green and i sit and read my paper in quiet. any time after 7:00 it's packed with students with their laptops. every table occupied. the noise-level is horrendous, like being inside the engine of a 747, not that I've ever been in one of them either. and on top of the general chatter, tap-tap-tapping on laptops, urgent annoying cell-phone calls that simply have to be made in the middle of a noisey cafe, the clatter of cups, saucers, spoons, the management feel the need to have background music. Arrrgh.

I try a new cafe around the corner and because I have only $4.34 on me, limiting my choices greatly, I tell the guy behind me that he can go ahead as I haven't yet made up my mind. Of course he orders a latte which takes the woman behind the counter about 2 hours to make. finally when I think the latte is complete she asks the man if he wants Vanilla. the man doesn't understand what she is asking, so she has to repeat it. Vaneeela? she says. The man still doesn't understand it. I want to jump in and say "she wants to know if you want some frickin vanilla" but I do not. I leave and go around the corner to another cafe.

I like this cafe, because it's always empty and the owners are friendlier than hell "How are you?" the owner who is seated at a table reading the paper greets me. he gets up and goes behind the counter to take my order. there's not a soul in the place, per usual, and I wonder if I am the first customer of the day. "What can i get you?" he asks. A quick glance at the glass case, however, and I know i'm gonna hit the road without making a purchase. i really don't want anything he has to offer, but he has sad green eyes and his wife is seated behind him slicing tomatoes for sandwhiches which probably no one will purchase today. i consider purchasing a chocolate cake disguised as a muffin out of sympathy for his dying business but i do not. i tell him, i'm just looking as if I'm shopping for a new pair of shoes and leave.

I return to work. Linda calls and asks if I want to meet at Saul's Deli. Why yes I do!

8 comments:

Ippoc Amic said...

you sit in quiet and in darkness...
sometimes, I can't even see you sitting there...

you failed to mention our lovely lunchy...i'm making up by getting reservations at the cafe 5pm...my treat..they have that lardon thing tonight too...what is lardon?

marscat said...

you've been badder.

Velo Bella said...

I can't wait to get my lard on

X Bunny said...

lard, lard, lard

that's all anyone seems to want to talk about these days

how about some nice pectin?

Ippoc Amic said...

or more XBunnies and PABs...

Velo Bella said...

Is Bunny pregnant?

norcalcyclingnews.com said...

In the early 90's I worked as a janitor at a hospital. During my cleaning duties, evenings ranging to dead hours of the morning, i would pass by and scrub through all the departments.

emergency rooms, with their moans and blank stares, gibbering drunks and gossiping staff.

doctor's lounges and fitness rooms with tv's blaring wide over running mills and muscle machines.

administrator's offices ... with wadded papers tossed inches away from trash cans, dismissed as unimportant things attended to by others.

and

morgues.

blood pools and rigor mortis is freak beyond fun. expressions aren't frozen ... they are gapes, howls, grimaces that echo on.

because few die in peace.



... guess i should try and live in it, then.

~

gracias gato.

marscat said...

and i though my job at Der Wienerschnitzels was bad....that sounds dreadful.