Coffee Shop Habit

Sometimes I am fortunate to get off a few minutes early from work.  Also, fortunately, there are a couple of Starbucks in town that consistently stay open late at night (well, it's late at least for hokey Gainesville). The location on Archer Road stays open until midnight and is near my workplace, but it is usually filled to capacity when I get there.  So instead, I often take a slight detour eastward on my way home and go to the one at the corner of 16th Avenue and 13th Street (US 441).  They close at eleven, but I don't want to stay out late, anyway (the hokeyness has worn off on me, I guess).  This Starbucks has its usual complement of police "customers" crowding the place (and parking lot) at this time of night, which is fine since they seem to have me pegged as a legitimate human being and not a "suspect" to be scrutinized; besides, there is plenty of seating to go around, so bring 'em on...

I wonder sometimes how far back in my life this predilection to whiling away my time in public establishments drinking coffee goes.  I recall once when I was with my father as we attended one of those hip (back then) new age self-improvement seminars down at the Marriott near Miami International Airport.  It was October, 1972, and we had just finished hearing some sort of silly lecture  (the message from which I have forgotten) and went downstairs to the restaurant where we sat around the bar there with some others attending the seminar...and we had coffee.  Somehow the ambiance there made a strong, positive impression on me.  I was sixteen at the time. Still, I didn't get into the habit of going out to drink coffee until 1978, after I had been in Gainesville and was going to the University of Florida as an undergraduate student.  It was then that I took to this habit, something that I have never relinquished to this day.

Now when I am sitting in a coffee shop, I don't just sit there staring off into space.  I usually have my portable work processor with me in case something comes to mind that I'd like to write down, maybe even fit into a blog article (like right now, as a matter of fact).  Also, I have some foreign language texts that I study on a regular basis.  And then there are whatever books that I happen to be reading as well.  And a spiral notebook is on hand in case I'd like to jot down some thoughts or plan things out.

Well, I guess my time has "whiled" away enough, and it is approaching closing time.  It's homeward bound time!