Café Etiquette

I think I'm a near la Reina of Senseless, in my combo of extremely diminished sense of smell, probably messed up sense of taste, complicated in about seven ways eyes, and miserable hearing. Working at being poster Childe against the compensation idea.

This is all fine as long as I get along. Past that, I'll lose my amusement.

Maybe my love of the marketplace is a kind of engagement interest, though in fact, I'm not all gung ho on being a lively troubadour myself.

Chai. I've had to walk out of those situations in no small part because I was worried what kind of violence I was on the verge of committing. That hasn't happened in a while.

Interesting, dag! I've always wondered if it could be related somehow. I had the non-stop middle ear infections too, evidently, though that's somewhat unclear right now. I never had fevers, never had pain, never had perforated eardrums, did have tons and tons and tons of antibiotics. Evidently they were prophylactic, because I had fluid in the middle ear but just fluid. But now it's somewhat unclear whether I actually had fluid or if it was just that my hearing went down (which it did) and it was assumed to be about fluid, when maybe it was just an early manifestation of what ended up happening later. It's all kind of confusing at this point. I grew up on the orthodoxy that I had constant ear infections -- there was a bottle of pink amoxycillin in the fridge at all times -- but when sozlet started getting ear infections and I started really researching them, I realized that her experience and mine were very different. Had some conversations with my mom, still haven't pieced it all together.

Have found out that antibiotics at the scale I took them can be ototoxic themselves, though, maybe that could have something to do with the trauma right there?

Do you have any links or anything? Maybe PM them, don't want to take shapeless' thread too far off course. Interesting, though!

I can rekindle my ole Too Loud, Too Bright, Too Fast, Too Tight thread, which is precisely about that. And the book of that title has really helped me tremendously - not in the least by naming what I had to live with and was until then perceived only as annoying by others (grow up already, or don't be so selfish and antagonistic!) and frustrating and guilt-inspiring by me.

That totally depends on the cafe.. in some you would, in some you wouldnt. True for Budapest, Berlin, Amsterdam..

Hmm.. 45 mins? (thats from the top of my head)

Also greatly depends on the place.

As for what is good for business, if its a busy place I guess they find the hour-with-a-cup-of-coffee people a loss of money -- but then they dont have to worry about the money anyway. If its not such a busy place and doesnt have to worry about free seats, its only in their favour if people feel homy and unrushed - they might only drink the one coffee, but they'll come back. The one-coffee-an-hour people often tend to be(come) regulars, so there's a payoff involved.

Ooh, I love reading or working in a cafe. At home is just at home. You're alone and aint got nothing but yourself for distraction and company. But if you sit in a cafe, you read your newspaper or work on your laptop, theres the nice waitress smiling and already knowing what you want, theres the interesting people at the next table, the comings and goings, good music you might not know yet, and generally a cosy, engaging but low-key atmosphere.. I can lounge for hours. (Though yes, I do feel obliged to order something at least once an hour).

But then I'm very good in zoning in and out. So for me its perfect. I got a place to go to, a place outside, a place where at least someone (the waiter) knows me, a place where you can see people. You enjoy the coming and going a bit, then focus on whatever you're reading or doing. Then after 10 or 20 mins, you look up and just watch the people passing by outside on the street for a while. Then you return to your reading, smile at the person bringing your order, read some more. Perhaps exchange a remark about the weather or the events of the day with the person at your table (if there is one) or the waiter (if you're a regular), and then, if you dont feel like talking anymore, you go back to reading or editing or whatnot. Perfect!

And yeah, thats the other thing, exactly. At home I start either going online or doing things - reading, cleaning, whatever. (Ok, not so much cleaning ;-)). So when I really just have to, say, edit a paper, its easier to go outside to remove myself from home, also as a formal start of doing Something Different, and go somewhere, do it there.

(Of course now with ever more cafes having wifi, it becomes more difficult again to focus on editing even there.. ;-))