Ethnography

Ethnography

October 12, 2014

OCD (obsessive coffee disorder)

Sunday, October 12, 2014
12:21pm I walk into the café ready to order a scone and a coffee, mind intent on some caffeine. The outgoing lady with the pixie cut works at the register again today. I like her because she always is so happy and exuberant.  

12:25 After sitting down at a table with my roommate and setting up my computer I look around the café. It is a classic Sunday. Various laptops open around the room sitting in front of studious men and women.

12:29 Oh look is that Vince Young?! Oh no my bad just another everyday café attendant drinking her ice water listening to music, wearing a Titans jersey with a 10 on the back. Her jersey is actually pink and not the regular blue. This kind of confuses me but maybe it’s for breast cancer awareness. She sits alone at a table with five chairs, her back against the wall. She has her MAC open with a teal cover case on it. Her pink headphones are plugged into the aux jack and into her ears. Next to her headphones she as a pink USB plugged into her computer as well. Maybe it’s just a coincidence but I have the feeling that is woman really likes the color pink.

12:39 I am distracted for a bit as my friend Barry who works at the café comes by for a quick chat with my roommate and I. This time he does not have his green and black striped tie, but just the classic all black attire mandatory for the job. Oh his head he wears a brown cap with the café logo across the front. Three pins are pinned on the brim of the hat, I can’t tell exactly what they are or what they mean. Maybe I will ask him on his next break.

12:43 Behind me at a table sit two African American women. They sit diagonal from each other so as to have more room to spread out their belongings. They both have their computers sitting out in front of them and converse back and forth about midterms and assignments. Both the women are heavily over weight. One wears blue basketball shorts a white t-shirt with a hat on her head. On her right eyebrow she has a piercing. The other woman is facing away from me and towards the window. She has on a pink sports bra and a pink cami over it with long sweat pants.

12:53 Barry heads back over to the trash can next to our table. As he empties it I ask him about the pins on his cap. “This one’s for being a badass, this one’s for knowing about coffee, and this one is actually also for knowing about coffee” We make a little more conversation with him as he takes an uncharacteristically long amount of time to empty the trash can. Suddenly he speeds up his process and rushes away back behind the counter. I assume he got the stink eye from a coworker.

12:56 At the large conference table in the middle of the room sits a guy who has been in here as long as I have. His back is towards me, his computer open and a text book open in his lap. On his computer screen a tab is open to google translate. I am not sure what language he is translating to, all I see are a bunch of characters on the screen that don’t make sense. I don’t investigate any further as I don’t want to infringe on privacy. The man wears thick rimmed glasses, dark skin, horizontal stripped shirt paired with vertically stripped shorts. Bold move on his part.

1:00pm across the table sitting at the head sits a woman typing on her MAC. This woman also has a teal/ aqua plastic cover on her MAC. Seems to be a popular laptop cover color. She wears bright pink lipstick, long sleeved white shirt with a denim vest over it. Just as I am admiring her pink scarf a young man comes and sits right in front of me interrupting my view.

1:03 This man looks familiar, like I’ve seen him in here before. He has an orange, white and grey canvas backpack and a Hurley button up shirt. His glasses are very square and geometric, but compliment his face structure perfectly. He opens his mac and begins typing on word. I feel a bit like an outcast here with my yoga Lenovo. But I’d choose my touchscreen yoga any day over a mac.

1:07 MALE: 8

FEMALE: 10

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