Coffee Crazed

As I opened the door and walked into the Coffee Shop the eyes of the woman working behind the counter shot towards me, and with a smile she welcomed me. After I ordered a drink I sat at a table and noticed the distinct aroma of coffee beans traveled through the store.

           

Two middle aged women, Martha and Jan sit near me, drinking their large coffees and are discussing many things including work related problems, giving each other advice and gossiping about what I assume are their husbands.

            

Soon a group of four middle eastern men came in speaking what I am guessing is Farsi, very loudly, laughing at the top of their lungs and once they order they all sit down and continue their conversation while all using their laptops.

            

The employees behind the counter are all rushing back and forth trying to complete all of the orders being made due to the influx of customers and one of them, I’m guessing she’s the manager is commanding them to complete their tasks.

I can hear many conversations, a couple of middle-schoolers look to be on a first date and awkwardly sit next to each other on a couch against the wall, the boy slowly moved his hand onto the girls and they sat there in silence holding hands and drinking their coffee awkwardly. The lovebirds finally began talking and soon broke the awkward silence and I can see them laughing.

            

One man sits by himself in the corner on his laptop with his ear buds on as he types away on what looks to be homework. He looks like he has been here for hours, because he has three empty coffee cups on his table and he has a distraught look on his face, but he still slaves away at his homework, ignoring every thing around him.

            

The Lovebirds finished their drinks and walk outside to tell each other goodbye, they stopped holding hands and the girl gets in her moms car and leaves. The boy walks back into the shop and sits, looking at his phone.

            

An elderly woman, pan, walks in and orders a sandwich, as she waits she reads a newspaper, and when her order is complete she goes to get it but drops it on the floor, she shouts a vulgar word and everyone in the shop seemed to stop what they were doing and looked at her in shock. She seemed no to notice and just picked up the sandwich and went back to her seat where she ate it anyways. Everyone went back to their conversations and Martha and Jan finally got up and left the shop. The group of foreigners seemed to disappear, as I couldn’t find them anymore.

As the shop begins to prepare to close, the employees seem to have calmed down and are laughing with each other, even the uptight manager cracks a joke as they all clean up and dance along to the music playing in the background. They seem not to care what the few remaining costumers think since they are about to be off work. At this time everyone began to gather their items and leave.

I am left alone in the shop with the employees and before I leave they give me a free drink and tell me to come again soon.

Gathering in the Mess Hall

A silent and calm Sunday afternoon, the masses of students pour back into town after an adventurous weekend of infinite possibilities.  With the cloud covered sky that this weekend has blessed us with, I move down to the Campus’s favorite eatery.  The lights seem bright, a nice contrast to the walk down, and the aroma of food being prepared fills the air.  A variety of students sit around; some by themselves, a some in smaller groups, and even a few in gigantic groups, each fighting for elbow room and oxygen as they occupy the booths.

After a few minutes, one young man comes and sits down by me, wearing a Broncos jersey.  I see several around the room eating away, but this individual is staring down at his tablet device.  I assume he is watching the football game that was going on, based by some of the sighs, and celebrations that I heard coming from his direction every so often.

A group of four girls comes and sits down in my area.  I had to do a double take to ensure that they were all different people, based on their similar physical appearance, as well as dress.  As soon as they sit down, the phones came out.  The phones remained glued to their face as they ate in silence. Each appearing to eat the same dessert out of a bowl until they quickly left minutes later.

A group of students quickly rush in next, and occupy a nearby booth.  They seemed almost determined to sit there, as if they owned the booth.  The ease with which everyone slid in indicated that this was not an unusual thing for them to do.  A barrage of chatter, as they all ate their cheeseburgers, followed occasionally by a sudden outburst of laughter; I am not entirely sure how they were all able to hear whatever the outburst was about with how loud they had previously been.  Immediately the chatter started backup and I occasionally heard snippets of the shrill voices talking about their classes, or friends, or the party they went to this weekend.  And almost as suddenly as they arrived, almost in unison, the group stood up, and filed out.

My attention is quickly drawn to a nearby table, where I see three individuals.  All looking very similar, with darker hair and glasses, the three individuals, with one female and the other two males, suddenly broke out into song.  It did not last long, and I was unable to determine what song they were singing.  For a few minutes as they ate, they became quiet, as if their concentration on food was too great.  But once it was gone, they started back up, singing and conversing for a few more minutes. Occasionally I would hear a shout form that table about the fourth of July, or fireworks.

As I walk over to go get more food, I see a student engaged in conversation with one of the employees.  He was complaining about how he was supposed to have gone home already, but still needed to work.  After a few more minutes of conversation, they parted ways.

Not too far away, is a table of 4.  One of the girls at the table, I’ll call her Calendar girl, starts to plan out her entire life in great detail.  Speaking quite loudly, I find it hard to tune her out as she talks about how she plans to graduate in exactly 4 years, then spend 3 months overseas, come back and have a certain job working for a certain company not long after.  The three others at the table sat there in amazement as calendar girl explained what the next 50 years of her life would be like.  After several more minutes, she finished her rant and quieted down before they all returned to their food.

The final group that was sitting near me was three individuals, all of seemingly different ages and ethnicity.  At first they seemed to be discussing normal topics such as classes and their weekend, but after a few moments go on to talk about things that I never imagined that I would hear in this environment.  Slavery, whippings, and Nazis were some of the more discussed topics that I could hear coming from that table.  But they got up and left, as a giant rush came in.

How can we help you?

I walk into the mediocre temperature room, and sit in the swivel chair. Across from me sit lowered eyes of Red Shirt who is eagerly waiting for his turn. Red Shirt has come with his smaller friend, Striped Shirt. They are both speaking their language together, and cast forwarded glances of humor in my direction- there must be a joke that I can not share with them. Striped shirt makes amicable gestures towards Red Shirt, and his body language is also towards Red Shirt. They have similar facial expressions in the aftermath of the joke, both with slightly half up-turned smiles.

When they had interacted with me, it was brief and amicable, as the make their arrangements. They continue talking, and walk out together, in a way that is hard to tell who walked out the door first.

Next walks in Glasses, with his wife and child. They come forward, and the child--Little Head--walks over to our children's toys and begins to play. Glasses makes all the arrangements and Long Hair--Glasses' wife--simply looks around the room and watches to make sure Little Head isn't getting into trouble. Glasses speaks quietly and succinctly, and does not linger with small talk. Long Hair only says 'thank you', and once the interaction is over, they take Little head and walk out the door.

Troubled Girl, who has come in before, walks in again with a concerned look on her face- she needs a specific item, but we cannot appease the conditions for it that she desires. She attempts to compromise, but becomes agitated and leaves. Her hands were gently wringing themselves during the interaction, with eyes that did not quite meet the entire time.

There are also, near me, Nice Hair, who swivels in the chair and--with a mirroring concerned expression--ask Troubled Girl what she needs. Once Troubled Girl has, not quite, been helped and leaves, Nice Hair resumes looking through something on his phone and listening to music, sans a concerned expression. Nice Hair's friend, Cool Shades, plays the same music ritually, and take it in passively. Aside from talking about the tasks at hand, the two discuss weekend plans, or else continue on homework assignments. But, they did often mirror each other in reverting back to phone use once the talking quieted. One was wearing jeans and a t shirt, and the other khakis and a t shirt. When conversing, they had similar expressions of elation and concern, which must mark some familiarity or friendship. They have probably known each other for a log enough time to be familiar, but are both comfortable with being on their phones most of the time.