Mmm... Georgia...

As discovered on This American Life's Georgia Rambler episode.

I think I have a bacon problem...

The News

I began, about a month ago, a new morning ritual. My friend, A, who has been mentioned in other entries, used to live with my friends M and T. She now lives in a condo which is literally 100 m from work.

A is incapable of getting up in the morning. Unless, that is, she knows there is someone who will show up at her condo and bodily drag her from bed. That's where I come in.

Every morning, I now get up a bit early, shower, get dressed and walk to A's condo. The weekday morning concierge knows me now. We have our small talk while I wait for A to come down and get me. That place is locked up tighter than Fort Knox. First either she or the concierge has to let me into the lobby. Then A uses this little infrared remote to activate the elevator which will only let her go to her own floor. Then there's another door which requires the remote. Then her own door, which requires her keys. It just seems like a bit of overkill.

I've been teaching her how to cook breakfast. She can fry an egg six ways from Sunday now. We've been experimenting with oatmeal and fruits and stuff. Today we even had corned beef sandwiches for breakfast. I bring really good coffee that I get from my little bulk store in Kensington. We chat. It's nice. I think we both go to work in better moods than if we'd had breakfast on our own.

This part will come as no shock to anyone who knows me or probably even anyone who has read my blog, but we wind up talking about me a lot. We also talk about A and our friends and family. It's pretty rare that current events come up, though.

I used to read the Globe and Mail while I ate my breakfast alone. I'd read about the latest technological developments, politics, international relations, what was going on outside my own neighborhood. Now I talk about what happened at work yesterday, who I have a crush on, or how badly we got creamed at dodgeball.

Well, I may not have any idea what's going on outside my own little world anymore, but I arrive at work well fed, well caffeinated and happy.

Light-Roasted, Full-Bodied, Bitter Enemies

I seem to have a knack for making enemies at coffee shops. Like the girl at Second Cup who seems to think my name is "Crazy".

I spend most of my coffee time at the Starbucks near where I work. I think the first enemy I made there was the French guy who is always trying to poison me. One day, my friend and coworker M was ordering and I asked the guy behind the counter to put a bit of poison in his coffee. Without missing a beat, he called out "short Komodo Dragon with poison" to the person pouring the coffees. He put it on the counter. I said, "are you sure you put enough poison in?" He said, "Oh, is very high quality poison. You only need a little." Ever since then he tells me there is poison in my coffee. Except on Fridays. I don't do poison on Fridays. Incidentally, he recently had a new baby. Congratulations! :*)

After that came the guy who I think is the manager there. I was in one day in September, I think, and I saw pumpkin cookies out. In my usual style, I went off about how it wasn't even October yet and they already had Hallowe'en cookies out. Honestly. It's like the time I was at the Bay in the Eaton's Centre and there was a woman putting up Christmas decorations in her Hallowe'en costume. She was dressed as the Devil. I wish I'd had a camera at that exact moment. Anyway, I tend to be rather loud and boistrous in public environments like that. Aparently this guy doesn't so much like people ruining the ambiance of his Starbucks like that.

So I'm ranting at my coworkers about how it's not even October yet. By the time I get to the counter, I've started my rebuttle, "dissirregardless... uh, yeah, I'll have a short mild, please" to which the guy from the previous paragraph responds "irregardless is not a word." Now, first of all, I said DISirregardless. And second of all, I have been led to believe that irregardless is now in the dictionary with a usage note to the effect that it's only a word because lots of dumb people use it to sound smart, which does mean that it's a word, irregardless (take THAT) of how much it wasn't a word 50 years ago or how stupid a word it may be. Not that I would ever use it seriously. The important thing is that this guy doesn't like me very much.

A few weeks ago I was in line and there were new cupcakes in the case; chocolate and vanilla. I asked the barrista which flavour I wanted. The girl behind me in line, who was a barrista on break said, "chocolate. You want chocolate." Well, the chocolate was a bit "meh". Not a terrible cupcake, but, y'know, not a great one either. This, of course, meant war. Next time I was in, the girl who recommended chocolate was running the till and I ordered a vanilla cupcake with extreme prejudice and wasted no time telling her how disappointed I was with the chocolate one.

Every time we see each other now we shoot each other dirty looks.

Except yesterday we slipped up and smiled at each other.

I guess I'm not as good at having bitter enemies as I thought.