It's days like today that make me realise I really do love being that person behind the counter. Days where nothing extraordinary happens, where you could probably even measure the hours as they pass by depending on which regulars are passing through as they live out their typical Friday routines; like those two older gentlemen who always come in around noon for soup after their ride, and hot chocolate after their soup. I like these two. They smile a lot, and we discuss how busy (or quiet) the trails are today.
And then there's the two fathers with three small children between them who order some combination of coffees and breakfast rolls and beans on toast and cheesy toast and maybe some ice cream for after. They introduce themselves today, one of them saying, "We see you every Friday but we don't know your name." So we swap names, finally, after weeks and months of knowing each other in passing.
I love how these small relationships grow, relationships with people you know but don't know. You might start out as complete strangers, both following the silent social rules while playing out the roles of cafe slave and customer, but over time the two-dimensional roles are rounded out, and you both become People as details are filled in from conversations that expand in fragmentary patterns each time you interact, details filled in from the gleaning of little facts about each others lives.
Sometimes quite intimate details are shared, because there's a certain safeness and anonymity in the customer-cafe slave relationship, as if that counter between you operates as a vortex, and any information that passes over it is absorbed into a quiet confidentiality.
You may not know every facet of these people's lives, and to them you may just be yet another person who serves them their coffee on a regular basis, but it's these little human connections and the unravelling of strangers until they aren't really strangers anymore that keep me planted where I am. It's fascinating, and oddly rewarding. I like it.
Hey! (so you don't get confused, this is neonorangeds... I moved and am hopefully going to transition back into the blogworld) I agree with you completely about how neat it is to get to know people, little by little, when you've seen them over the course of months. I work behind the counter in a pharmacy, so the people probably aren't as laid back or in as good of moods, but aside from that it sounds pretty similar. (Well, ok, and you make coffee that smells good and I count pills that don't :)
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy you like your job though!! I think that I last read about it when you'd just begun. Hopefully, I'll keep in touch better this year!! Hope all is well!!
xoxo
hello! How are things going? I took a little look over at your new blog and I'm guessing there are many exams ahead?
DeleteI was always intrigued by the people who worked in pharmacies when I was younger, like they were concocting medicines on the spot. Ok, I'm still intrigued ;)
I hope life is treating you well, and it's really good to hear from you again!
Hey :)
DeleteLast week/beginning of this week was probably the worst it's been all year so far with tests... so I'm just now getting back to responding. Things are much better now :) I've missed the blog world and am sorry to have been so terrible at keeping up with things. Hopefully your life has been treating you well (from the sound of things it has :)
As for concocting things on the spot... well, aside from some lady's vancomycin suspension, I see very little compounding. But I totally agree with you that it IS cool. I also work in a compounding lab as an assistant and that's where I actually get to compound sometimes. I'll have to post some pictures if I make anything cool.
Promise to make a better effort to keep in touch!!! xoxo
I'd love to see pictures of that (is that odd..?)! It's a completely alien world to me, the whole medical science thing, and things that are alien are always so fascinating. I'm really quite liking your new blog, too. I can't say why...I just do :) I need to get over my 'commenting on tumblr' fear, though, ha!
DeleteLife is treating me well, if a little quietly and slowly, but I'm starting a couple of new projects so no complaints, really.
I'm terrible at keeping in touch, too, so no worries. I just hope you're getting some time to relax; it all sounds a bit hard core! x
I, too, love those little connections with the people we see all the time but who aren't quite friends. My favourite is the person who drives the exact same car that I do (in the same colour as well) who I pass every day on the way to work. (I can usually gauge how late/on time I am depending on where we pass each other.) I have never even seen this person's face properly, but we wave to each other every morning.
ReplyDeleteHeh, I like that time-gauging method. I love how people form these random connections based upon some kind of similarity - like your cars. It kind of makes me like people all the more. See, now neither of you will ever be able to get a different car..
Delete