It is a little after 1 in the afternoon when I am turned away from my patio and take a seat in a booth at the back of the bar. It is substantially more crowded in here than normally, this may be due in part to the patio being closed off. The overall feeling of this crowd seems a little more rowdy than usual, this may also be due to the atmosphere of the bar. It is darker and louder, everyone seems to be trying to talk over each other. I am going to pick a few of the more subdued tables to draw my observations from.
First off there is a table with two girls in their mid 20's chatting quietly. They are dressed casually and both have a backpack. So these are probably college kids grabbing some lunch before or after class. Only one of the girls is drinking a beer. Maybe she is cooling her nerves before a major exam, I know that always works for me. Even though the bar is pretty loud, the two of them keep their conversation quiet, they lean in to each other when they are speaking. Their postures are very relaxed and they smile a lot. I suspect they are probably classmates and friends. The girl with the beer also pulls out and checks her phone periodically. It is less phone usage than I would expect from two girls in their 20's. As suspected they split the check when they are ready to leave.
There is a large group in the back of the bar. Four guys and two gals are all having a very animated lunch together. They are all in their mid 20's and dressed casual. At first glance I thought they might be a study group but the two girls in the group were showing a lot of affection to the guys they were sitting next to. It is unlikely that two members of a study group would bring along two other significant others. So I am leaning to this just being a large group of friends. This seems confirmed by everyone interacting with each other. They all seem very comfortable with each other. No one even seems to mind the heavy PDA coming from the two couples. Unfortunately from where I was sitting I wasn't able to see if any of them had their phones out. I would suspect there was heavy usage of phones with that group based off of their age and outward appearances, but I cannot say for sure. The group was joined by one more guy also in his 20's and carrying a backpack, it would seem he just got out of class and is meeting up with his friends for a Halloween beer. This kid was either really popular or the group was inebriated since they all cheered and clapped when he showed up at their table. The latter seems more likely.
Sitting at the bar, there is a gal in her early 30's and a guy in his mid 40's. The girl is dressed as some sort of fairy or witch, I am not really sure which. The guys is dressed casual. On first glance I would not expect these two to be together. Their age and difference in appearance makes me think they are only chatting together because they happen to be sitting next to each other. But they seem to be having too good of time to only have just struck up a conversation. It is possible that they may be a couple, or maybe co workers. But I just didn't get that vibe from them. The gal had her phone out fairly often. She took several pictures of her beer, which is common for gals these days. The guy never pulled his phone out while he was there, also which isn't very surprising. I was never able to figure out what sort of relationship these two had with each other. They did however leave together, I think the guy paid for them both. I missed the actual transaction so I can't say for sure. They may have been brother and sister, or maybe they were a romantic couple after all. Weirder things have happened.
A single guy takes a table to himself and orders a beer. He is dressed casual and has his backpack with him. The idea that he is a college kid is reinforced when he pulls out a not book and some paper from his back pack and starts doing what looks like math. He uses his phone sparsely. This is not surprising since he is by himself, but I would expect a little more phone usage from him. He does seem intent on his work in front of him so that may be why he isn't on his phone more.
Well that is all I have for you folks this week. Even though I wasn't able to do my observation from my usual spot on the patio, I felt this went well. I was a little surprised there wasn't more people dressed up for Halloween in the bar. Let me hit a quick review for you:
- Crowd of mostly college kids with their backpacks.
- Just about everyone was drinking beer.
- Light to moderate phone usage across the board.
- Everyone was more animated than normal, this may be due to the overall loudness of the bar area, the fact that it was Halloween, because everyone was drinking beer, or maybe it was a combination of all three.
So all in all this went pretty well being inside, though next week I expect to have my usual spot back outside so I can keep up some continuity. Happy Halloween y'all.
-Al
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