Baristas at Barnes and Noble are way too friendly. Tomorrow, I started this blog exactly 11 months ago sitting in the exact same seat I'm sitting in now with no intentions of finding inspiration from the ceramic tiled floor of a Barnes and Noble Starbucks. But that's exactly what I found last December and that's exactly what I'm finding now.
Tinkershlinkershankslansplash.
That's the best way I can describe the sound of a delicate teacup falling from the wooden bookcase next to the "Pick Up Order Here" bar. A petite blond woman had knocked it off and is now smiling her embarrassment off as she grasps her brown shoulder bag and bends daintily to pick up the rolling pieces. Her friends stare at her.
"Oh," she whimpers like a mouse. "I'm, I'm so sorry." She says to the barista. I really do feel sorry for the woman. Its never pleasant to be the object of a situation where everyone around you is paralyzed either by the lingering memory of the time they were the ones who knocked the glass off the shelf or an innate desire to never be associated with something so embarrassing.
(Okay....that last sentence didn't come out the way I had hoped. But I've been off from writing for 6 months. Give me a break and give me some time to warm up. If you haven't noticed, my voice is changing and its a little difficult to hold onto this snarky tone.)
Anyway...the blond haired barista bent down to pick up the pieces and said, "Its okay...they fall off all the time."
Do they? I wonder. Because obviously I come here a lot and I've never seen or heard a delicate tea cup hit the ceramic tile floor the way that one did until today. I think the barista just lied. All for the sake of some lady's feelings who is still walking away with her down, desperate to get home and laugh as she tells her husband what she did.
Life, its a funny thing. Don't get mad at me for pointing out the obvious. Just sit back and laugh. Because that's what I would do if the same thing happened to you.
