Tag Archives: Starbucks

January 7, 2009

DEATH DRINKS DUBLIO BREVE

Evil Empire Starbucks

Evil Empire Starbucks


As sometimes happens, I drop by the Evil Empire Starbucks to grab a cuppa to take back to work after lunch. Like any place that serves coffee on the north side of Oklahoma City I’m likely to see a few people there that I know, but not always. Sometimes I have to go next door to Saturn Grill before I see a face familiar. Evil Empire Starbucks is not like Sauced or the Red Cup in a lot of ways, but in some ways it is. Retired philosophers drink coffee wherever it is served, whether upscale or truck stop diner.
BECAUSE I SAID SO, THAT'S WHY!!!

BECAUSE I SAID SO, THAT'S WHY!!!


This day, on my way through the line, I found myself being served a grande hot chocolate (goodness! was it not a cold day?) by a lovely barista with whom I have often passed the time of day. Some of you may also know her. However, do you know her big secret? I do. She’s married to a hobbit that works for Ed in the bowels of Sauced.
Hobbit's wife

Hobbit's wife


On my way out, I paid obesience to the coffee codgers. The retired guys who know something just because they’ve lived through something. However, this was not something I wanted to hear particularly. We’re all going to die. Sooner or later, we all are gone from this life. This homespun philosopher, who should know from his vantage point of advanced age, reminded me that every moment, asleep or awake, Mother Nature is trying to find a way to get rid of us after the age of 40.
coffee codger

coffee codger


You know what? I don’t care how true it is, I don’t want to hear that. Just because MCARP says he’s ready to call it quits to middle age and start saying he’s “old”, doesn’t mean I have to do it. I am Peter Fucking Pan, baby, and I WON’T GROW UP. Don’t care what you say. We also talked along about how much time seems to pass faster after age 40. I got a theory about that. We experience time mostly through the observation of entropy. Because entropy has the upper hand after we’re 40, we “feel” like time passes more quickly because we see more entropy in less time than previously.
7jan09-012
So, in the spirit of never growing up and highlighting my youth, what I did next of course is go to work where Mrs. Taylor, a teacher in her real life, gave me that “you are late to class and do not have an admit slip, young man, what am I going to do with you?” look as I snuck by while she was on the phone. Whew! Thought I was going to have to go to the principal’s office and get something really nasty put on my permanent record. Where do they keep those permanent records, anyway? Who keeps them? Who looks at them?
TODAY’S THOUGHT

If your happiness depends on money
you will never be happy with your self.

Stephen Mitchell translation of Tao te Ching
Chapter 44

STORIES THAT INTERESTED ME

The helpful tax collector? IRS given power to cut better deals

The Milky Way’s Not Snack Sized Any More

A cool cat with blue eyes.  Call him Sinatra

A cool cat with blue eyes. Call him Sinatra

I guess I’m glad I fell asleep before I remembered to poo in his shoes, Muffy, because this dark he finally brought home the FANCY FEAST that I consider vital to my Way of Life. I made sure to put an extra layer of finest cat hairs all around the cuffs of his best black suit to show my appreciation and to make sure no other cats get near my guy. Hey! You Birds! Get off my lawn! Gotta run, Muffy. bye!

FOR NO GOOD REASON

January 4, 2009

SATURDAY WAS A TOP DOWN DAY FOR BLOGBLAH

Are you gonna be my drop top girl?  It's a top down day

Are you gonna be my drop top girl? It's a top down day

I have beaucoups things to do to get ready for Monday and I’m working to get my calendars and contact lists all sync’d up and blah blah blah, but when it is 73 degrees Farenheit on January 3 in Oklahoma, there’s no way I could stay inside and pound away on the computer. Nor could I do anything else. I just had to get outside. Now, I know how Sinatra feels when he’s sitting on the window sill yelling at me to let him out NOW.

73 Degrees!

73 Degrees!


I dressed and got in the car and pulled it into the driveway and pulled down the ragtop and away I went on a little Saturday afternoon adventure when there was football on the television and everything (I don’t give a rat’s patoot about the NFL, so there it is). Perhaps you live in Tucson or in Charleston and don’t think it was REALLY 73 in Oklahoma City, so I even took a picture of the thermometer in the dash:
Since I didn’t really have anything to do or anyplace to go nor much money to do it with, I thought I’d just kind of drive around and see what was up and if anyone else was out on the streets looking for something to do or having found something to do or planning something to do.
Evil Empire Starbucks

Evil Empire Starbucks


The first place I went was the Evil Empire Starbucks since that was the closest place I could think of with outside seating.
However, there was not a soul around who I recognized among the sparse customers. I suppose the Nichols Hills people are all out of town at the lake or going to some bowl game or coming home from some bowl game or maybe they’re just skiing, but there wasn’t anything to keep me at 63d and Western and I didn’t even buy a cuppa there.
Red Cup?

Red Cup?


So, it was off to the Red Cup.
Yes, I know it’s called the Red Cup, but the identical white cup of coffee on the red counter you see in that picture is what I actually got. Along with a long note from Kurt the self-confessed bad businessman about how the menu is going to be curtailed and an equally long whine about his tiny digs and all the excuses for not serving his customers.
Lexi at Red Cup

Lexi at Red Cup


Good thing I don’t go to the Red Cup for the food or even for the coffee. What I do go to the Red Cup for is to see friends, which I had not found at the Evil Empire Starbucks. Sure enough, the first person I saw was old friend rarely seen these days, Lexi.
I have no idea why she was holding that rat in her lap, but she claimed it was a dog and who am I to argue when she’s there with her boyfriend and I want her to speak to me after she realizes her horrible error without me. She says she’s “good”, but we all know better depending on how she meant that.
Skip at Red Cup

Skip at Red Cup


Not two feet away from Lexi was the intrepid Skip, talking to Lars on the phone. He says he’s having a triune brain brainstorm session Sunday about 3:30 p.m. at Galileo’s and depending on the weather and how I’m feeling I just might go. Later, I saw Skip at Sauced! as well as the cup, but you don’t get two pictures and mentions that easily. Well, I guess you do.
Sauced! bike rack

Sauced! bike rack


Next on my list was, of course, Sauced! with it’s large patio outside and its clientele of young artist types and Paseo dug-ins and just the normal neighborhood folks. Here’s the famous Sauced! bike rack with several bikes installed because those bike folks seem to flock to Ed’s Place.

One of the people I saw at Sauced was fellow blogger and fabulous artist/architect/sculptor, Larry P, who runs the pop*modern blog, where I found the “THOUGHT FOR THE DAY”. Larry quotes a construction foreman as saying:
“I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.”
my oh my but ain’t that the truth!

pop*modern

pop*modern


Larry P was incognito at Sauced!, thinking about a beer and maybe not a beer but a thousand other things, but I took his picture so maybe you could recognize him if you saw him in one of those grainy black and white videos from a convenience store robbery or maybe a Scorcese film.

Speaking of fellow bloggers, I also saw LongRydeHome in all her beauty at Sauced! She was talking to some guys and she introduced me and all, but I wasn’t paying attention and I don’t know who they are. I wish I’d read her blog post for Saturday and had known she started out having a pretty hard day and what sounds like a good cry.

longrydehome

longrydehome


In the event, I figured she was working her mojo with the big, handsome guys whose names I don’t know and I drifted over to another table.
Christopher at Sauced

Christopher at Sauced


At the next table, I found a couple of friends chatting, Christopher and Andre.
I am very jealous of Christopher because he speaks foreign languages, has an absolutely gorgeous woman in his life and has and does travel the world. He even has a steady paycheck, which is a rarity in Blogblah world.
Andre at Sauced

Andre at Sauced


Andre, one of the cooler parts of a warm day, was deep into some kind of conversation around the table when I barged in, but it’s always great to see him. We talked about how dangerous a place it is between your ears sometimes.
BECAUSE I SAID SO, THAT'S WHY!!!

BECAUSE I SAID SO, THAT'S WHY!!!


For example, I thought this blog was going to be a good idea and a monster was created. Far too often I find myself in wonder at how good an idea it seemed at the time and how not-so-good it turned out.
Other than the schemes and dreams, though, there’s also a guy in my head at the head of the committee that doesn’t seem to like me very much and is yelling about what an imperfect screw up I am.
I blog to make him shut up.

AN INVITATION

Worst Ever

Worst Ever


Last, but not least, there will be an Inaugural Ballz celebration at my house on Jan. 17, the Saturday before Obama is sworn into office. It’s BYOB since I don’t drink, but there will be food, poker playing and a finale you won’t want to miss — the burning in effigy of the current Worst. President. Ever. Before that, we’re going to throw shoes and shoot BBs at the life-sized image I’ve had ever since Oz scared the hell out of me one April Fool’s Day a couple years back. Think 7:30-ish.