The Cafe Experience

[keiramarcos]

So the Cafe reopened yesterday and Snotty Chicklit Writer and I promptly set up came and nearly staged a mutiny at closing last night.

We're back today and it's difficult to work because I feel like something is wrong with the place. Some of the furniture had to be replaced but I don't think that's it since my fave table is still where it should be.

Even The Humming Man (whom I used to call The Hummer until my cousin in Arizona informed me that I could not call a grown man a slang term for a blow job. Right.) has been snarky and uncomfortable all afternoon. He does win the award for sparking the most seriously funny thing said today and it went like this:

There was this particularly pretty young man sitting across from us and I'd say he was about 18. This man in his late twenties comes in and meets the kid and proceeds to spend most of the lunch trying to get in this young man's pants under the guise of helping with some kind of project the kid is working on for some community arts thing. I was flabbergasted and the young man seemed to take it all in stride and remained friendly throughout the entire thing. The older guy was just a creep though and I can't even explain why. So he finally leaves and the kid sits there with his coffee. Two or three minutes past and then The Humming Man just burst out with:

"You realize that jackass is trying to get in your pants, right?"

Snotty Chicklit Writer almost fell out of her chair laughing.

The kid for his part just smirked and said, "Aren't they all, man."

Comments

[ravenmoonart.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on getting your work space back, even if its not quite right yet.

Young&pretty certainly has his his self esteem on right, though! Good for him.

[ladyholder.livejournal.com]

Wow.

Humming Man wins for that one. The pretty boy just sounds smug.

LOL.

~L

[qzee.livejournal.com]

the incident with pretty boy sounds as if it could have happened to John when he was 18ish. And it also sounds as if he can take care of himself.

[keiramarcos]

Yeah, I don't think that older guy is going to get any for his efforts and if he does he'll just THINK it was his idea. LOL.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Sorry your cafe isn't quite right, but glad you guys are still amusing each other.

[neqs.livejournal.com]

Wow, I should really learn not to drink anything while reading your lj - almost spouted tea all over my poor machine just now! I'm glad the cafe's back btw, even if it's different. Bad associations? Tornado karma hanging about? I'm hopeful that this, too, shall pass. Hugs!

[indyanne.livejournal.com]

Could it be that the smell is wrong? Maybe there's still a hint of paint or polyurethane still lingering in the air.

But congratulations on getting the Cafe back!

[influ-bad-ence.livejournal.com]

Now that is a good come back! The Hummer gets points. Hmmm maybe you should do s cleansing of the place, get rid of negative energies.

[chris-king-2005.livejournal.com]

Yay! The favourite writing space is back in operation!

Huh. I wonder why it doesn't feel right? I can tell that I spent my formative years in the company of proto-hippies, because my knee jerk response to that is maybe the place needs to be smudged or ritually cleansed or something. Maybe you need to offer coffee to the resident domovoi?

[keiramarcos]

That's funny because the local Wiccan girl said we needed to burn sage in the fire place but I'm not sure I can take here seriously since she always orders weird green tea and chi tea drinks in a coffee house.

SciFi Writer is convinced it's because the main roaster wasn't roasting today and the "smell" was slightly off normal because of it.

[eternusdiscipul.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you and all the regulars should do some kind of initiation ritual, fact remains that it's something that was bashed appart by the tornado and all of you haven't been there for a while. I don't think it's far fetched to say that fucks with someones mind a bit since your sanctuary has been out of commission for quite some time.
I can relate to it, when I got my new campus office it took me 3 weeks to get used to it, later I realized that it was like a safe heaven to me and changing it fucked seriously with my chi.

The smells the thing

[pandakahn.livejournal.com]

I am going to agree with the smell. If they just did a rebuild then they have fumes form the sheet rock, taping mud, paint,...

Once they roast I would think it would start to be more like the old cafe and less like a new, unfamiliar place.

Just saying,

MPK

[juniper617.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's the roaster specifically, but SciFi is probably on the right track about the smell. Seriously, smell is the most primal sense, and the most closely connected both to memory and to general hind-brain responses. For example, I can still lie down on my mom's pillow and feel a great sense of comfort and safety although I'm now 45 years old. It's just a triggered response to the scent that I am not consciously even smelling.

So they've had a lot of work in there, right? Smells have been added, others have changed or disappeared. When "your" people have occupied the space again for a while, and as you adjust, it will become "right" again, I'm sure.

Hang in there!

[batspit.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't smudge a place that is supposed to have a very distinctive smell. Bells work better for that.

[tamstercmt.livejournal.com]

Smudging was my first thought too.

[icefalls-tears.livejournal.com]

lol to pretty boy's response.

Glad it's bad

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

The roaster theory seems sound, but I still think there needs to be an orgy of some sort to make everyone feel at home again.

But that would be tacky...

[pandakahn.livejournal.com]

I think an orgy is a little tacky, not to mention over the top. Now, an erotic public performance piece with the leads from SG-A would be very civilized and acceptable, and allow for public participation.

(picturing John Sheppard, Rodney McKay and Ronin Dex doing "Waiting for Gadot"... shudders...)


MPK

Re: But that would be tacky...

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

It could have been an orgy in chocolate. (attempts to look innocent)

Because Nuttella would be over the top?

[pandakahn.livejournal.com]

The event ending in a chocolate fountain? White chocolate fountain to make is classy?


MPK

Re: Because Nuttella would be over the top?

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

...a bowl of double chocolate buttercream frosting at every table; room temperature for easy spreading...

Re: Because Nuttella would be over the top?

[pandakahn.livejournal.com]

OMFG!!!

We forgot the sprinckles! Who is going to come to this if we don't have sprinkles?

MPK

Re: Glad it's bad

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

I just noticed the subject line typo.

"Glad it's back " is what I meant, of course. ;)

Re: Glad it's bad

[tamstercmt.livejournal.com]

LMAO! You guys rock!

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

The older guy was just a creep though and I can't even explain why.

Actually, having just reread Whatever It Takes, I can tell you this whole story creeps me out because it echoes Kara Summers crowding Rodney both on Pitch Day and on the planet where they met Ronon and Tir. It's a creepy and passive/aggressive form of dishonesty when such overt sexual interest is "hidden" under faux helpfulness. Without witnessing the encounter, I'm still pretty sure the older guy had nothing real to add to the project, or they whole thing would have been slightly less creepy.

[keiramarcos]

I can't put my picture on one thing he said or did, ya know. It just seemed slimy.

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

Then slime he was! (adds coffeehouse creep to shitlist)

huh

[dvorarose.livejournal.com]

Just for the record, your local coffee shop is so much cooler than mine.

*shrugs*