I'm at my Starbucks this morning. The usual transient coffee patrons are here, some rushing in for a cup of coffee on their way to work, some are stopping to have a pastry or sandwich. Then there are those who are lingering a bit to read the paper and sip their drink slowly. But then there are those who seem to always be here and are quite the sight to behold.
One in particular has been named "CJ." She's a woman of undetermined age who usually wears a yarmulke, she's got sparkly clips in her hair and often wears big beaded jewelry. Today she is here and dressed for safari. White knit cotton Pith Helmet, hair is in a braid, green tie-dyed shirt, ill-fitting jeans and ballet flats. She sits in here for hours at a time, monopolizing a table with her stuff. She's got a mini-laptop computer. The display on it is upside down - COMPLETELY upside down (I watched her boot it up the other day and even the brand logo came up upside down!). Most of the time she taps away with great force, then she sits back and grins at her work.
Apparently one day she was doing crafts. She had rubber stamps with her. My dear friend Steve who witnessed this said that she was having quite a time with the stamp pad and had ink all over her hands. Unphased, she continued with her stamping frenzy.
Today she's wearing headphones. Whatever she's listening to makes her happy. She's singing along (quietly!). She's uing her little computer and she's basically tapping the same 6 keys. Oh wait, she has stopped to apply lipstick. time for a beauty break!
One afternoon I ccame in here and she was drumming. Oh, she's quite the show.
The other semi-regular I see in here is the old woman with long white hair, who wears a lemon yellow organza bow on the top of her head. Today she is in a long shiny black duster with a pink blouse underneath, black pants and orange canvas sneakers. she has lots of bags and wears sunglasses. When I arrived here this morning, she was in my chair. I like the chair in the corner so that if I want to look at dirty pictures, I can without offending anybody. Anyway, yellow bow lady doesn't do much although I have seen her sitting and watching something on a portable DVD player.
these are the people in my neighborhood. Won't you be my neighbor?
2 comments:
Jim, I WAS you neighbor! And, I have to say that is one part of Chicago I miss very much. We do have a few eccentrics here in Los Alamos though. We just lost the biggest one to cancer. Check out this story about
Ed Grothus and The Black Hole in Esquire magazine. If you are ever in the are come and give me a visit.
http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0406NUKENUT_172
That's quite a group you have there, and you describe them so well!
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