An Austin friend left a comment on facebook the other day that got me to thinkin'. She asked, "Since when did coffee shops become a 'No Talking!' zone?" Recently she had arranged to meet up at one, with a friend she hadn't seen in quite some time. They arrived to find themselves surrounded by people with laptops, who were using the coffee shop tables as free office space. At least one of them didn't appreciate all the "catching up" that she and her friend had to do, for he/she made a show of gathering up their things and stomping out, grumbling about not being able to concentrate with all the noise.
You know the Muses and I meet at a coffee shop every week. Or, at least, we try to. You'd be amazed at how difficult it is to get all of us together at once! Yesterday was the first time in eons that all five of us showed up so, needless to say, we had lots of catching up to do.
Pouring Paint Woman had just sold a wall-sized painting to a couple in San Antonio, so she was a wee bit giddy!
Fiber Woman had just returned from a month in Illinois with her ailing mom, and will be heading back soon, so we had to fill her in on everything she had missed. Plus, she is doing some illustrations to go with a couple of Wisdom Woman's stories that are being published in a book, so we wanted to hear and see all about that, of course.
Outdoor Woman was just coming off a daughter's wedding high combined with a near-death scare the night following -- a tale which had us all mesmerized!
All in all, I think we are fairly well-behaved, but we have been known to laugh out loud upon occasion.
We have received a few glares for it too. Mostly, however, people just come up to us and say "You girls are just having way too much fun!"-- another way of saying "pipe down" I suppose. Which we always try to do. But isn't this what coffee shops are for? I know that's what they used to be. I'm also fairly certain that the shop itself makes a whole lot more money off of the five of us at our one table for about an hour, than they do off of a single person who buys one cup of coffee and lingers at a table for half the day. Do these "office space" people have a right to be pissed if we talk while they are trying to work, as long as we don't let it get out of control? I don't think so. And, as the old song goes, if lovin' this is wrong, I don't wanna be right!
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