Evidently my entire town runs on coffee. With a population considerably less than 20,000, we have three Starbucks and a bunch of other specialty coffee places. In the village alone, you can buy a different kind of brew every few yards.
I visit them all. On days when I want comfort and no surprises, Starbucks is the place to be. I like that it’s predictable. It’s very clean and cozy. The staff is kind and I like the music and the coffee tastes good and I like the way it smells and the small tables by the west-facing windows feature views of Mount Tamalpais.
A blogger writing about writing, cautioned “Don’t be caught with your laptop out, working at Starbucks. It’s geeky. It’s not cool.” I have a couple of thoughts about that.
1) I’m not sure anyone, anywhere can define what’s cool.
2) I don’t have a laptop.
However I am guilty of writing at Starbucks. I’m writing this at the one around the corner from my house. Writing it by hand on a yellow pad with my favorite Pilot Prestige pen with the extra fine point and blue ink. When I’m done with my tall non-fat latte, I will tuck all of this back into my tote bag and meander on home and no one will have ever mistaken me for a writer.
No one will say look at that writer with her laptop out in full view. To the untrained eye, I am just another person making a grocery list. Which is also true. But today I have, during the course of one latte, messed around with the outlines of several writing projects that are due, and I did it all right here, working undercover.
I’ll bet many writers owe a credit to Starbucks. Geeky or not, my playbill should read: The part of the angst-and-coffee-soaked location will be played today by the Starbucks at the corner of Miller Avenue and Camino Alto. The part of the writer will be played by: To-Be-Announced – when we discover his or her true identity.
Ó By Anita Garner