Small Talk
Jul. 14th, 2011 01:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
multipurposegoddessSo, I ran out of coffee earlier this week. I cancelled my Stumptown subscription after the last delivery, figuring that I should take advantage of the roaster not four blocks away whose coffee is quite good and just order an occasional bag of something special from Stumptown. All well and good until it's time to buy that next pound of coffee and I don't want to leave the house.
Not that I have stayed inside all week, but the very nearness of Eco-Delight Coffee makes it a less anonymous destination than, say, Sacramento or fast food drive-thru windows. I have been loath to walk around the neighborhood recently as it feels too exposed - a neighbor might say hi to me or something! So today I finally decided on a stupid but effective solution and drove to the coffee shop.
Got myself a ham and cheese croissant (not the ham and cheese croissant of my dreams. I have an ideal ham and cheese croissant in my memory but it was from a bakery that went out of business years ago and I will probably have to learn to make croissants to approximate that again), a damn fine cup of coffee, and a pound of El Presidente Reservo which smells fantastic, and sat in one of their comfy chairs to eat and drink and read A Dance with Dragons as I have been promising myself I would do. No one there but me and a couple of employees, which was very pleasant indeed. As I was finishing up, one of the regulars came in - there is often a table full of older men near the front door, the same kind of crowd you might find in front of a bait shop or playing dominos on someone's porch, maybe retired, maybe just having a day off, practically a social club. Naturally he wanted to chat with me, even though I was obviously reading, since there wasn't really anyone else to chat with. I put on my friendly mask and obliged.
Small talk is full of pitfalls and dragons, my friends. It started with "do you live in town?" which was fine but quickly brought in the old standbys "what do you do?" (actually, "are you a teacher?" which I get a lot, for some reason), "do you have children?", and "are you married?" (along with the potentially troubling but fairly easily evaded "where were you before here?") Sigh. But it's not like he actually wanted to know my story, those were just jumping off points for him to talk, really, which I can deal with. So, that was fine. Reserves of sociability all used up, though.
Not that I have stayed inside all week, but the very nearness of Eco-Delight Coffee makes it a less anonymous destination than, say, Sacramento or fast food drive-thru windows. I have been loath to walk around the neighborhood recently as it feels too exposed - a neighbor might say hi to me or something! So today I finally decided on a stupid but effective solution and drove to the coffee shop.
Got myself a ham and cheese croissant (not the ham and cheese croissant of my dreams. I have an ideal ham and cheese croissant in my memory but it was from a bakery that went out of business years ago and I will probably have to learn to make croissants to approximate that again), a damn fine cup of coffee, and a pound of El Presidente Reservo which smells fantastic, and sat in one of their comfy chairs to eat and drink and read A Dance with Dragons as I have been promising myself I would do. No one there but me and a couple of employees, which was very pleasant indeed. As I was finishing up, one of the regulars came in - there is often a table full of older men near the front door, the same kind of crowd you might find in front of a bait shop or playing dominos on someone's porch, maybe retired, maybe just having a day off, practically a social club. Naturally he wanted to chat with me, even though I was obviously reading, since there wasn't really anyone else to chat with. I put on my friendly mask and obliged.
Small talk is full of pitfalls and dragons, my friends. It started with "do you live in town?" which was fine but quickly brought in the old standbys "what do you do?" (actually, "are you a teacher?" which I get a lot, for some reason), "do you have children?", and "are you married?" (along with the potentially troubling but fairly easily evaded "where were you before here?") Sigh. But it's not like he actually wanted to know my story, those were just jumping off points for him to talk, really, which I can deal with. So, that was fine. Reserves of sociability all used up, though.
