Friday is the day ...
… to delay going to the office just a bit and walking around downtown near the train station. Wait, that didn’t come out right. I mean the train always gets me here round 8:10; the question becomes whether to cross the street and climb the stairs to the cube, or to cast my lot randomly in one of the coffee shops that cluster in the area thick as relic stands in Vatican Square.
[ fyi I made the mistake of re-reading Another Roadside Attraction recently. It didn’t age well; or maybe I did, too well. At any rate I need to purge the fog of Catholic allusion and extended absurdist metaphor]
Today I’m at the All City. Compared to the Zeitgeist (gold standard), it is smaller, sunnier, more expensive, just a hint more uptown (which you can tell, ironically enough, by the increasingly grunged-out baristas). Less crowded. Nondescript fairly quiet loop-based muzik playing out somebody’s movie’s incidental personal soundtrack outtakes. Fine for typing. Not as good for the people show. Missing the lived-in well-bred boho vibe the of the Z.
A fifty-something couple in bike gear are having a serious meeting at the table next to me. He is wearing his “#1 WAMU Dad” tee shirt. She has a not-so subtle official Stanford bike team jersey; maybe from the day. Before the ride they need to iron something out; Sandy, Don and Doug apparently dropped the ball on something. Don in particular.
Just saw somebody from work. Crap. Never happened at the Z. That seals it.
