Tall Order
I have been doing a bit of studying for board examinations lately which has translated into plenty of time squandering at various coffee shops. Already at this premature time in the post, you find yourself wondering how I am going to rank the coffee shops that I study at. Maybe I will bullet my favorites with a few buzzwords about each one. Maybe I will numerically rank them just because I can. That would be a very "blog" thing for me to do, and I'm not going to degrade myself like that today. This publication is more hard-hitting than that.
More importanly, for numerous reasons (both ethical and practical), it is impossible for me to rank coffee shops against one another. In my mind I have a list of my favorite places to study, and that's good enough for me. Mood, time, location, and availability often interplay in the sophisticated coffee shop matrix, which ultimately determines where I get my coffee on a particular day. Inter-coffee shop comparisons are completely irrelevant, very similar to when one attempts to compare apples to oranges, or probably more appropriate in this case, nectarines to clementines.
This evening I ended up at none of my favorites. After seeing that The Grind was 100% full when I passed by, I opted to escape the rain and study at a nearby Starbucks. I found it very odd that my coffee was free tonight. It was free because it still needed about 90 more seconds of brewing time when I ordered it. This means that I would have to remain coffee-less a few more endless moments than originally anticipated. It makes me uncomfortable to think that Starbucks' policy is that my coffee is free if I have to wait for an extra two minutes to get it. On the other hand, they may have just been quick to recognize my molten core of intense anger management issues thereby avoiding the serious altercation (involving hot freshly-brewed coffee) that was more than likely to ensue.
While enjoying my fresh coffee, I also got to sit by a very Chicago, very leather-jacketed, very slick-haired gentleman, very much in his mid 40s. Accent and all -- "You can't make money today like you could in the '80s."
More importanly, for numerous reasons (both ethical and practical), it is impossible for me to rank coffee shops against one another. In my mind I have a list of my favorite places to study, and that's good enough for me. Mood, time, location, and availability often interplay in the sophisticated coffee shop matrix, which ultimately determines where I get my coffee on a particular day. Inter-coffee shop comparisons are completely irrelevant, very similar to when one attempts to compare apples to oranges, or probably more appropriate in this case, nectarines to clementines.
This evening I ended up at none of my favorites. After seeing that The Grind was 100% full when I passed by, I opted to escape the rain and study at a nearby Starbucks. I found it very odd that my coffee was free tonight. It was free because it still needed about 90 more seconds of brewing time when I ordered it. This means that I would have to remain coffee-less a few more endless moments than originally anticipated. It makes me uncomfortable to think that Starbucks' policy is that my coffee is free if I have to wait for an extra two minutes to get it. On the other hand, they may have just been quick to recognize my molten core of intense anger management issues thereby avoiding the serious altercation (involving hot freshly-brewed coffee) that was more than likely to ensue.
While enjoying my fresh coffee, I also got to sit by a very Chicago, very leather-jacketed, very slick-haired gentleman, very much in his mid 40s. Accent and all -- "You can't make money today like you could in the '80s."
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