Annoying Late Night for Me

Sometimes work can be a bit stressful toward the end of my shift, approaching 11 PM. After I get off from work, I would like to find a relatively quiet public place to unwind with a little decaf coffee and then go home. Try finding such a place in Gainesville, though! Still, I'm making it a kind of quest: surely there is someplace that isn't too loud, excessively lit, full of obnoxious people, and serves coffee that time of night...

The other night after a particularly stress-inducing shift, I went to my local 24-hour Krispy Kreme to find some solace and coffee. Mistake. There was a long line of customers as I entered, so I sat down and waited, pulling out a notebook to read. Only I couldn't read, everyone was so loud. And argumentative. It seems that some of the customers were irate because the red "hot doughnuts" sign wasn't on yet, and they wanted their doughnuts HOT, dammit. Then the comatose-looking attendant behind the counter asked a woman customer what she wanted, to which she replied a dozen glazed. This angered another customer, who had already ordered and was waiting for his dozen glazed doughnuts (are you beginning to see how irrational these people were). The woman actually apologized to the man for her order, probably realizing what a nutcase he was. All this and a myriad other conversations seemed to be amplified by the place's acoustics. And the lighting there would befit an interrogation room. Well, I eased on out of that joint and wrote off my experience as a lesson learned...

Maybe tonight I'll try one of those all-night restaurants where they expect you to order complete meals (like at IHOP or Perkins). Then I'll just sit there like the goth kids on South Park, annoying the servers by ordering only coffee and sitting there glued to the seat!