Thursday, February 26, 2009

Diner Coffee: Invasive

I love love love breakfast-ing with people (tomando el desayuno!!). It may be my favorite thing. Yes, I’m a morning person. There’s just something so wonderful about starting the day at a slow pace enough to relax, enjoy someone’s company, eat good food. After a shared breakfast, the day can only continue in such a magnificent style.

On President’s Day a friend and I headed to Nookie in Lincoln Park. I’m a new fan of coffee and had thus never had the diner-coffee experience. I took two sips of the sub-par tasting liquid and a waiter instantly replaced the deficit. I looked up surprised, “But I haven’t drunk anything!” My friend explained the process. You drink. They pour. But… can’t I just finish my cup?

For those of you who don’t drink black coffee, how do you do diner coffee? It would seem to get exhausting: constantly measuring cream and sugar and adding and taking away… it would spoil the morning’s slowness and goodness.

I continued desayunando (breakfast-ing in Spanish) and was extremely preoccupied by the loads of coffee being added to my mug. I couldn’t focus. For example, when I become really animated or excited, I speak with my hands. At one point, I recounted a moment of disappointment from my week, and – fittingly so – I put my face in my hands in a gesture of desperation and frustration. But I realized that – NO! – the waiter was going to put more thin brown liquid in my cup! My head shot up.

Don't take your eyes off the mug.

I decided I couldn’t desayunar with such anxiety. I resolved to finish the meal holding my mug so the waiter couldn’t catch me off guard.

Does this mean I like control? I want my coffee mug to be my coffee mug! I want to decide how much coffee is left in the mug! Diner coffee is such an invasive concept.

3 comments:

Becklesnwu said...

Hilarious!! I always have the exact same reaction to the diner-coffee phenomenon! I can't stand that I have to keep figuring out the cream and sugar. I think the ritual was made for people who just drink coffee black. Ewwwwww.

kait said...

it means you're supposed to drink black coffee like a WOMAN.

Megan said...

And I DO drink black coffee. Because I AM a woman. (I think a knock was just made against Becklesnwu). This is a peaceful blog!!