For a couple of weeks I have been exchanging emails with a gal, we met on a dating site. We agreed it was time to meet so we agreed that a local Starbucks would be a good spot. She said she had some errands to run that day but she would have a couple of hours available. I also had a few things to do that morning. We agreed to meet at 1pm.
We both arrived at the same time and both got something to drink. We chatted about work, pets, family, politics, religion. About 4, she said she should get going, she had a few things to do.
At 5, she said she should get going, she had to go home and feed her dog.
At 6, I said I should get going, I was getting hungry and I had something to do.
At 7, we shared a pastry and agreed we should go.
At 7:50, an employee of Starbucks told us that the store was closing in 10 minutes and we would have to go. We walked out at 8. My only complaint? My butt went numb about 5 from the wood chair, they need padded chairs. Who knew 7 hours would go by so quickly.
I had a first date that went something like this - it ended when the the restaurant closed. It is a good sign - in my case I am now happily married to this person
Congratulations! No matter what else you learn about each other, you now know for sure how you each take (or don’t take) your coffee.
In the grand scheme of life, its probably a petty nothing…but I’ve always felt that if you really liked someone, you should care enough to learn and get their coffee right.
Seems great now, but date #2 will consist of awkward silence punctuated by exaggerated throat-clearing and fruitless attempts to initiate topics you’ve already exhausted.
Lots of Starbucks employees will give you day-old pastries that they’re about to toss out anyway if you’re still there at closing. Just a word to the wise.
In my world, they generally close around 9pm. The best SB location in my area, downtown Culver City, occupies the ground floor of a historic, triangular-shaped building at the intersection of Washington and Culver. The Kirk Douglas (stage) theater is a couple of doors up the street, and the Helms Jazz Bakery is going to relocate to the same block.
As for the Starbucks, they still have comfy chairs, and a reasonable number of other chairs and tables. But they close at 9pm. I agree, it sucks pretty hard. It’s a nice pedestrian-oriented neighborhood; you’d think they’d want to capitalize on it. Besides the live stage theater I mentioned, there’s also a large multiplex theater a block away, and a smaller multiplex a little farther in the opposite direction.
Maybe it’s the fog that a full day of work brings on, but I have it in my head that Starbucks was going to try to stay open later because they were trying to see if they could invade the alcohol market…Maybe it was only one location…
I asked her to a movie.
After the movie we wanted to talk about it, so we got coffee.
After a few hours of drinking coffee we still wanted to talk, so we went to the grocery store, bought stuff to make dinner and went back to her place.
Then other stuff happened.
But 15 years later the conversation is still going on.
