I'm sitting at Starbucks right now, all alone. By that, of course, I mean I didn't come here with anyone, but we all know that one is never actually alone at Starbucks. I came to get coffee and sit by myself to do some writing. I didn't know when I got here what I would write. I've recently caught a new spark for a story I started some time ago, and I've been jotting down ideas for it, so I thought I might come here to work on that. I considered blogging, too, but then I'm pretty much always considering that. If you could get inside my mind, you would know that at any given moment I might be composing some random blog post. Clearly, most of those never actually get written.
Ah, but today is different. Probably because I'm sitting right here with my computer, able to immediately pour my musings out onto my keyboard, as opposed to being in my van or on a walk/run or somewhere else. I guess in a way my thoughts about my story have led to this post. I've been adding to a list of ideas, and all of them are in some way connected to a real-life person, situation or event I personally know, have experienced or have heard about firsthand. I think so much writing is like that, isn't it? Sure, some writers imagine all kinds of circumstances and whole worlds that seem new and never before thought of, but the characters involved are surely inspired by reality. That's what makes those stories so compelling, right? As readers (and viewers, if I include movies and television in this thought), we connect with characters we can believe in, even if they're dealing with completely impossible "realities." What would I do if I discovered the hottest guy at my high school is a vampire? Would I volunteer if my baby sister's name was drawn to compete in a teenage death match in a post-apocolyptic society? I guess I could learn to use a gun, too, if it was necessary to defend myself from the zombie horde. Catch my drift? So when I find myself trying to think of ideas for characters for a story, I don't have to look very far.
Ah, the benefits of people-watching to the writer's mind! Right here at Starbucks, as I sip my coffee (which is almost gone and has gotten a little cold), I'm surrounded by good material. To my right are two youngish people (college students?) who appear to be studying. Not together, mind you. They're just here together, but they clearly don't need each other to study. She's working on conjugating verbs in Spanish, and he's doing something with a very fancy calculator and an iPad. They chat from time to time, but not about what they're studying. They know each other fairly well and have mutual friends, based on their conversation.
I've also managed to gather that the guy is married, but not to this girl. But she knows his wife, and he's talked to his wife on his phone at least once since I've been here. Hmmmm. What's up with that? Is the wife completely okay with this? See how interesting this could be? Good material.
Okay, Patrick Duffy's long lost twin just walked in. Weird.
At another table is an older gentleman who walked in right before I did. He did so with great effort, assisted by two canes, his legs bent and twisted, his back stooped. I watched his interaction with the young girl at the counter, who was very polite and helpful and took his order to him at the table where he sat down. As I stood nearby I seriously wanted to plop right down with him and have a conversation. I wondered if it would be totally off-putting to him if I asked him outright about the nature of his condition. Is this a form of cerebral palsy? Has it been this way his whole life? If I did, would he be offended, or would it seem refreshing to him that someone would be interested in talking, as opposed to just staring (which is what I think so many people do)? Or would he wonder why I would think he's different from anyone else in this coffee shop who came in alone because they wanted to be alone? Go away, lady. Did I accidentally wear my Askmeaboutmylegs sign instead of my Mindyourownfreakin'business sign? Gee, my bad.
I wonder what it would be like to know that no matter where you go, it is physically impossible to hurry. I bet it would totally change the way you see the world. I am, it seems, always in a hurry. I wonder how much I fail to notice, how much I miss, that a man like this doesn't. That's an interesting thought, considering the fact that the most natural thought someone like me might have about someone like him is He must miss out on so much. Wow. Good material.
Ever had a Starbucks Bistro Box? Not cheap. But I'm really hungry, and it's healthy, and I'm using a gift card. How can I not have one?
There's a woman here by herself who is also furiously studying for something. I'm curious, because she is definitely not college age. Closer to my age, I think. So is she taking college classes? Getting some kind of license or certification? Fulfilling a training requirement for her job? Does she have kids? Who is at home with them while she's here? How can she think and retain information with this music playing???? I am regularly fighting distraction myself, and I'm in output mode. It would be nearly impossible for me to process anything going into my brain right now. And the guy next to me who isn't married to the girl he's here with just started whistling! For the love of all that is holy, how am I supposed to be able to form a complete thought??!! I can't decide if this is good material, because in my head I'm singing an opera-like song in Spanish.
The girl sitting across from me who is not married to the guy she's here with just said, "So apparently the double negative is not a thing in Spanish." It's not a thing in English, either, pumpkin. Contrary to popular usage, we don't have no double negatives.
A young Asian dude just walked in. Also college age, undoubtedly also here to study for something. I wonder if one day Jin will walk into a Starbucks or some other popular study spot to prepare for a college final exam, and someone will watch him and wonder things about him. Maybe that person will want to just plop right down and ask him what happened to his leg. I wonder if, by then, he would be completely annoyed by such an intrusion, or if he'd be happy to share his story with this stranger. He gets so much attention right now, and I imagine that will be true for a very long time. But will there come a time when Jin just wants to be invisible, when he chooses obscurity after an entire childhood of being the poster boy both for adorable Chinese orphans and adorable one-legged kids? We shall see. Good material.
A young Asian woman just came in and joined the young Asian dude, and they are chatting away in an Asian language that I can't readily identify. How will Jin one day fit in with other young Asian Americans who are from families who still speak the languages and observe the customs from their original lands? Who don't have completely white parents and siblings? Will he have a hard time finding where he really fits in culturally, ethnicly, socially? No doubt somebody with a PhD in social sciences will find this very thing to be good material. Coming soon to a sociology journal near you.
Now there's another young woman here studying for something. And a mutual friend joined the not-married couple. He's wearing a camouflage cap, and his clear blue eyes and week's worth of stubble are really cute, even though his fingernails are seriously dirty. Maybe he's been working on an engine, or a farm. There are two older couples here, each sitting at a cozy table for two having an afternoon coffee and just quietly talking about whatever. There's a heavyset young man at the counter waiting for his order. He's wearing a bright green arm band like you might get at a concert or the state fair, and some kind of name tag sticker. Wonder where he's been today. The staff has grown to four people to cover this late afternoon shift.
Here we all are, for our own reasons, most of us completely unconnected in our lives outside this Starbucks.
So what would happen if the next customer decided to take us all hostage? Or if an alien ship appeared out of nowhere in the sky and ugly green creatures began looking for potential subjects for their ghastly experiments? Or if a wormhole opened in the men's restroom and we were all sucked into prehistoric Pasco County? Who would emerge as a leader among us? Who would have skills and knowledge to help us all survive? Who would cause dissention in the group? Who would turn to one another for comfort? Who would completely lose his marbles? Who would provide a little comic relief? Who would be too out of shape to make it when we decide to run to Target right across the parking lot (because Super Target is a great place to hunker down in any survival scenario, don't you think?)? Who would die in the first chapter (or episode)?
See what I mean? Such. Good. Material.
Too bad my story isn't about anything even remotely related to these ideas. Still, perhaps one of today's Starbucks friends will make his or her way in, along with a whole collection of other real people I've encountered somewhere along the way.
Unless all I ever write are blog posts. *sigh*
P.S. This just in: Cute camo-hat guy is going to a truck pull tonight. A Truck. Pull. Talk about your parallel universe. So instead of the alien invasion, what if we all went with him?
Who would emerge as a leader among us?
Who would have skills and knowledge to help us all survive?
Heh heh . . .
1 comment:
Sounds like you had a lovely quiet time to yourself!
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