Give me the confidence of a woman who talks to strangers with the justified expectation that her conversational gambits will be successful. She jumped right into a conversation with me by pointing to my umbrella (stuffed into my backpack because it isn’t raining.) and telling me that it reminds her to buy a little one to carry around with her. 

I took my headphones out and responded to her. It took a minute, actually, to pull me out of my work and figure out what she meant. I’m so used to the little green umbrella tucked in the outside pocket of my bag that, at first, I didn’t realize that was what she was pointing toward. 

She told me that no one carries good, small umbrellas anymore. She’s got big umbrellas but they’re a pain to carry around and she forgets them. The little ones break as soon as there is a stiff breeze and what good is that. Honestly, she’s not wrong. 

From there, somehow, we ended up in a discussion of the loss of local shopping options. She doesn’t like malls and hated when Kaufmann’s was sold to Macy’s. Apparently, there were lots of good stores downtown at one point. My favorite was Kaufmann’s – good sales, good clothes, great bakery. It was 11 delightful floors of fun and I miss it, even though I would probably never go there these days. 

Downtown shopping led to a lengthy critique of communities – she mourns the loss of sandwich shops in the community where I’m sitting right now. There really aren’t any good sandwich shops in the area. Hmm. Another good point from my new friend. I see her at the coffee shop every time I’m here and I’ve never considered talking to her. Just busy, you know. Who else has something to share? Who else just wants someone to talk with for a bit?

We chatted for maybe 30 minutes and then she left to catch the bus. She rides public transport from the North Hills community every day to come to this coffee shop because she knows the owner. Also, she likes Millie’s ice cream and would like them to open a store here because there’s no good ice cream in our neighborhood. (She’s also right about that.)

I just turned down my music so I could eavesdrop on my table neighbor. He spends a couple hours here every day, working on a project that seems to be life-changing. It probably isn’t but who doesn’t think their projects are life-changing?! Anyway, he received some bad news today about the project, slammed his computer shut, cursed under his breath for a few minutes and then left. SAME, brother. SAME.

Can we talk about the creepy coffeeshop regular who touched me — very creepily — the other day? Actually, I don’t want to talk about it. Any woman reading this already knows EXACTLY what I would say. Any guy reading this — if you even THINK for a blink of a moment that it was an accident, I hope you get cramps in your calves every night about 15 minutes after you fall asleep for the rest of your life OR until you realize that men don’t run their hands along other MEN’S backs accidentally. Weird coincidence, that.

Lots of stuff – shorts and poems – out to sub right now and the novel in revision. I wish I could type faster to get everything done that I’m trying to do. I have absolutely the most hilarious idea for a holiday novella. I just can’t wait to get to it but I also have two new novels in planning. It’s raining ideas and I don’t have an umbrella…oh wait. I’ve got that little green one in my backpack.

Much love.