People You Meet in a Starbucks...

In Ohio! I ventured home last week for my brother's graduation. My sister had class so she dropped me off in Starbucks to "hang out" so that means I got a chance to catch up on my writing and put this together for you, my dear readers :)
Now, I arrived at Starbucks at about 8am on a Thursday, which in NYC means the grumpy caffeine addicted work crowd- in Shaker it means time for the coffee house groups to meet.
Sitting near the only outlet in the place, a 60 year old man named Alex sits down next to me and asked me what I was writing. I told him I'm catching up on my blog. He says, "well join our coffeehouse group today - you'll for sure find a story"; and oh boy did I. Meet the characters:
Alex a married 60 year old from the west side of Cleveland
Franny the former judge added in an opinion on just about everything
Neal the son of one of Jimmy Hoffa's lawyers told us a story about his car getting blown up in his garage
Al the oldest of the group (with a very nice rose garden apparently)
And then there was Sharon...
Now, Sharon was interesting she looked me up and down several times and then began her line of questioning.
S: "Do you have a boyfriend?"
Me: "Yes"
S: "Does he tell you, you're pretty?"
Me: "Yes"
S: "Every day?"
Me: "uh...."
S: "He should tell you because trust me you can't be with an @$$*** for years and have children with him"
Me: "....Oh. Noted?"
What does one say to that?
Anyway, this caffeinated gossip group meets every morning before they venture off into their separate retired lives. Alex, the most loquacious, said he started the group just by sitting in Starbucks and asking different people what they were going to do that day. One by one, they each stayed to meet the others in the group and came back the next day for the "coffee talk". The day I listened in they paid their condolences to my generations (in terms of job opportunities), but noted that we still don't have it THAT bad, yet. Alex recalled a time in 1981-1983 when it was common to lose your job at least once during these years due to layoffs. He had to pay his girlfriend's rent for a while and he wasn't the only one in this situation. They laughed about columnist a little older than me comparing our hard times to theirs - they proclaimed,  "how could he possibly really know what it was like?" It's interesting to hear social commentary about a time when you weren't even a twinkle in your parent's eyes. Oh and of course I brought up Golden Girls and discovered my kindred spirits with the man named Al, who watches every night too (he confessed to me he thinks Betty White is hott).

So maybe it wasn't partying or celebrity-siting in New York, but I did get a little perk in my day! A Daily grind, where sipping is allowed, getting your drink extra hot and bringing the latest gossip is a requirement.

The Social Word

I'm pretty sure I was probably the last person of my generation to see "Social Network" so I hope I'm not spoiling it for any of you with this post. This was one of the most memorable movies I have seen in a long time... thought-provoking, intellectually stimulating and completely accurate in regards to understanding our generation. The movie centers around the idea of this social revolution, brought on by Mark Zuckerberg, which curtailed business values into what they are today. One of the happy coincidences of this movement has been the appreciation of language.
His story and the founding of facebook outlines our new business model and objectives that my generation has inherited. The movie mentions that there was a code of ethics inherently in business and that MZ was breaking all of these rules to create his company. Means and opportunity trump networking and impressing the big wigs. The thing about the good ol' boys is they can't  fathom reaching outside of their circle, now we're forming an entirely new circle or intricate web that is inherently social. Additionally, exclusivity has died. The importance lies in the amount of people you know and the depth of your network. And, we're forced to make more and more friends, while reading about people through the Internet without the commitment of actually getting to know them. What more do you need to know, their status on facebook or Twitter says all... Here's an example, the other day I found out my best friend from home just welcomed her nephew home, I texted her a congratulations with three exclamation points, because clearly the repeat punctuation means more. While this position might sound negative, it makes me happy that we are growing closer and closer to the English language and making sure we text what we mean and mean what we text.

Thankfully, this movement will finally show people why I've decided to commit my life to writing. The use of the language has never been more powerful. It has become incredibly transparent and as explicit as the 18th century novel. We're welcoming back a form of writing that connected people through the most distant circumstances. This writing is a way to understand the human connection in an era where we are all strangely connected.

So keep writing, texting and making nonsensical tweets ... as always, I'll write to you soon.