Monday, January 02, 2006

Why So Paranoid?

I am here at Starbucks, enjoying the day off. Reading C.S. Lewis and being wonderfully lazy.
The last day off... for a while. Holidays are now really over. Actually, I have a few days off, coming up in mid January, but after that... wow, it is full steam ahead until late July.
The New Year.
It is here.

I just got a pound of Starbucks Yukon© blend coffee ground up. I did not buy it here though.
The pound of coffee was a gift from my sister, at Christmas. It was in bean form.
Thing is, my own coffee grinder at home is not all that great. It does not grind as fine as I want my coffee ground. I like it smashed to a Turkish pulp. Like dust, really.
So I brought it here.

I've done it before, and Starbucks gladly obliges to grind up their own beans, bought elsewhere.
I always feel a bit funny about doing this though, because, I mean... I could have picked the bag of coffee right off the shelf, you know? Like, I always worry about proving that I did not steal it.
So while I was in the lineup at the till, I literally put the bag of coffee on top of my head. I even left it for a while, and it balanced there, I’m serious. It was some sort of psychological problem I was having. It was my feeble attempt at saying “I am not stealing this coffee that is on top of my head here.”
In reality, all that I probably accomplished was to have several people think I have some sort of brain damage.
So, now I was at the front of the line and as I was explaining to the barista girl about how this coffee was a gift to me at Christmas, when she said, “Oh, I can see right here, there is a piece of tape and gift wrapping...” and dang it all... there was. Stuck to the side of the bag of coffee.

It was very obvious that this was gift-wrapping. So, I felt better.
But now that I am back sitting down at my table here, I am wondering if she thinks that I am simply a more skillful thief than most. Like, I am one that thinks ahead, and travels with a bit of tape and wrapping paper and a story....

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