I’m sitting in my latest version of “my coffee shop”.

My coffee shop has a long history. It’s the place where I go when I want to get out of my home space. It get’s me away from a comfortable chair, my television and all of it’s many and various channels and apps. It gets me out among people when I feel like I’ve been cooped up with just me for too long.

I am comfortable with my own company. If you know nothing else about me you should know that. But I also think it is important to interact with humanity. No matter how much individual members of humanity make me despair for us all. I think it’s important to not get too insular. Also, my coffee shop is where I go to get creative. I think I have written most of my plays, revues, etc in the cozy confines of my coffee shop.

At my coffee shop I can focus on what I am trying to create without being distracted. Except of course when an attractive someone walks into the coffee shop and distracts me. I almost resent when the distraction walks in. Because, frankly, I can’t help it. I’m distracted. I will, and this might be over-sharing, but I will actually script a charming conversation, in my head, with the distraction. That’s “charming”, as in me being charming & clever, having all of the quick, snappy and interesting ripostes to lines that I have scripted for her to say. I am oh so witty, provocative and thought provoking.

In my head.

In real life, or “IRL” as the kids text, communication seldom actually takes place. And if it does, it usually goes something like;

Distraction; “Are you using this chair?”

Me; Uh, no.

Distraction; (taking chair) “thanks a lot.”

That’s about it.

But frankly, I think it might be better this way. Because there’s a word that typifies how I can come across to people who don’t know me. Tall, older ( usually) , bald, kinda unique looking, a little too articulate. Add these together and people often take the intuitive leap to a van without windows, a pit, a basket & lotion…..

….but I digress….

My coffee shop has a Starbucks in Tustin, Ca……another Starbucks in Placentia……McClains coffee in Fullerton & later The Night Owl in the same town. Lately it’s been Winans in Springboro , Ohio ( which also sells Harvey & Harriet, an outstanding mid-priced red ) and these days the Bow Tie cafe in Mt. Adams. But they are all the same place. The place where you can go, buy a $3 cup of coffee , or in the case of Starbucks a $7 grande Soy Mocha Creme de Menthe Frappachino, no whip. and use their internet and hang out all day.

A lot of great literary figures did this type of thing, like Hemingway, except that they did it in bars and drank alcohol. Maybe I’d be a better writer if I had a stronger liver. But I’m happy keeping my drinking to evenings and social occasions.

Was this going to be my topic today?

Nope.

It was going to be about Tiger Woods handing another golfer a tampon as a joke, and when I saw it I knew right away that it was going to come back to haunt him, and he was going to have to apologize to half the universe. And that I just saw his first apology on CNN as I walked into my coffeeshop, and I was going to blog about what constitutes a simple joke and what’s a terrible, horrible indictment of whatever group chooses to be offended by whatever they choose to be offended by.

But I’m not going to write about that.

Because it might offend someone.

Talk later,

Bob