Keith Richards and I got to the coffee shop just in the nick of time. I held the door open for some fellow following close on my heels but I knew better than to let him step ahead of me. I've been burned before. I'm polite but I'm not silly. Sure enough, after I ordered my venti, non-fat cappuccino, he started in at the barista about the sizes of the cups not making any sense and did they have any decent coffee and why did the pastries cost so much? He ended up ordering an americano which was too bad for the espresso puller because she also incurred his wrath. She was taking too long and he wanted his money back. I felt bad because I knew it was the three shots in my drink that was holding up his coffee. I didn't intervene though because sometimes doing so will just escalate the situation. In any event, we ended up at the cream and sugar stand at the same time, where he promptly slopped coffee over most of the stand. I could tell he was going to walk away and leave it so I pulled the sweet act and handed him some napkins. "Here you go! Isn't it awful when that happens? I always feel so bad leaving the surface sticky!" I wasn't trying to be bitchy, I just thought he should try to clean up some the damage he did that morning.
Keith and I sat down at the table near the door. I usually take my knitting to coffee because 1. I like knitting and 2. its a great decoy for listening in on conversations. I'm not ashamed that I listen. If people are going to talk in loud enough voices, in close quarters, about interesting subject matter, well I just consider it my own personal philopher's cafe. I've heard some doosies too. It helps that I don't often see the speakers' faces. Its like listening to a radio play.
Anywho, it is much more difficult to listen to others when one is reading a good book and the first several chapters of Keith Richard's autobio "Life" have been very good. The detail is excellent and the sentences have a unique cadence that seems quite true to Richard's voice. I think I'll do a review here when I'm done. That might take a while - its quite a tome - but I'm not going anywhere.
