Coffee House Voyeurism

I pull into the parking lot off of Geist Road and steered my truck through the maze of snow piles that the plow truck has been so kind to have strategically placed throughout. I felt like I was taking a driving test, to see if I was capable of maneuvering around each one of them. I truly cannot believe that it would take much thought to make sure that the snow piles were not blocking parking spaces for customers? I wonder if they are sitting somewhere in the parking lot snickering at me in my dilemma of where in the hell am I going to park-syndrome. Don’t get me started; this topic is for another time.

 The coffee house is quiet this time of day; it’s around 3:30 pm. I see a few sets of potential people that I can advantageously place myself next to in order to perform the task of eaves dropping. It seems the hustle and bustle of the day has come and went. I can see that the dishes near the exit door are piling up in the tub, waiting to be taken to the back for washing. The Bulletin boards are crammed full of advertisements; cabins for rent, lost dogs and wanting a mate. I can hear someone making an espresso and loading the brick oven with more wood. I can still smell the bread and pizza’s that were cooked prior in the day. The strong smell of coffee lingering in the air, from haven been roasted and brewed, a thousand times over.  I walk right up to the counter and a young girl with piercings, tattoos and multi-colored hair, asked me what I would like to order. I debated, and finally decide on a cup of their house-blend, in a real cup, accompanied by a tantalizing dessert, THE FRUIT TART. I pay and quickly do a scan around the room for victims of my eavesdropping. I gather my accouterments and find a spot next to a pair of middle aged women that are deep in conversation and they look like they were not leaving anytime soon.  As I sit down I hear, “Lee Ann”, I get up to retrieve my deliciously hot cup of coffee.

I settle in next to a pair of ladies that I would presume to be in their middle 50’s to 6o years of age. They are sitting across from each other and talking in hushed voices, over coffee and cake. The lady with long gray hair, that she wears back in a barrette said to her friend, “Gravity always wins, eventually it will be on the floor and we have to decide rather to pick it up or leave it laying there,” her friend looked at her, smiled and patted her hand. The friend of the lady with the long gray hair was trying to console her and reassure her that her body would tone and tighten up as she continued with her workout routine and what was left over; then you invest in some good foundation wear. They eventually said their goodbyes, and promises of getting together soon, and left the coffee house.

When listening to other peoples conversations, we only get snippets of what they are saying, especially when you are in a public place and have all the ambient noises in the background. I can only imagine what the rest of the conservation was about with these ladies. Maybe they were talking about picking up someone’s clothes off the floor? It could have been a number of things, rather than talking about a person’s body. Overall, I can see how just taking pieces of a conversation can get so misconstrued.