Meeting at Starbucks

 Almost a month ago, the building where I work began closing for repairs. It is a very old building. While it is under repair, our groups have been meting elsewhere, mainly at the mental health main building, but other places as well. 

One place we met last month was at Straw Hat Pizza, on May 17, for National Pizza Party Day. Of all the pizza places in my hometown (there are far too many of them!) I don't think I've ever gone to Straw Hat before this. Little Caesars has been my family's go-to place for ordering pizza, and I met with some friends for my birthday in January at Round Table. And one Wednesday we met at a local park for our Park Day, something we had been doing until COVID hit in 2020. I was glad to see this happening again, with food, drink and some outdoor games.

But one place other that main office we have met the most has been at a local Starbucks.  As someone who doesn't drink coffee, meeting at Starbucks gives me mixed feelings. Since they don't have caffeinated sodas, I've settled for drinking hot chocolate. I miss my sodas in the two hours that we meet!

But there has been one thing about meeting at Starbucks that has worked well. Twice already we have met at the cafe for my writing class that I hold at least twice each month. When I learned we'd be away from our building for some time, I decided to take advantage of this time away to do some writing exercises that require being in public. My firs though was to have it at another of our parks, which my bosses agreed to, for the Friday before Memorial Day. But when it got windy that morning, we decided to meet at Starbucks. And it worked out well.

The writing exercises that I chose are from this book (I have an older edition, and occasionally use it for my class). One is "Room with a View," observing the area around you. Another is "Legitimate Eavesdropping," trying to write down what you hear another person say. And "Observing a Stranger," watching and inconspicuously focusing on one person to describe. So far, we've met for my class at Starbucks twice. I've done all but the eavesdropping one. The music playing at Starbucks makes it a little hard to hear anything, including the members of my group when we have a discussion. We plan to meet again a week for my class at Starbucks a week from this coming Friday, if the building is still under repairs. We don't yet know when it will be finished. And if the weather gets even hotter by then, I'm not sure I will want to drink hot chocolate! But I could wait for it to cool down a little.

And I'm getting excited about next Wednesday, the 19th, when our group heads off the beach! We made one beach trip last summer, the first one ever. Will let you know how it goes next week.