*horrified*

I go to the cafe around the corner to read and drink some coffee on Wednesdays. I have a seven pm class, and it's really hard to leave the apartment at six thirty. Much easier to meander to the cafe at one or two, read for a while there, meander up the hill at five, read for a while or print things out in the library, and get the uphill part over with while it's still light and warm and going to campus seems like a (moderately) reasonable idea.

Only today, today that backfired. There I was, calmly and innocently sitting and doing my reading, when a group of three middle-aged folks walked up to the counter and began making extremely specific demands of the barrista. (They do food, but it's counter service, so usually you just, you know, order something and wait for them to call.) They wanted the barrista to run out to the store and get blueberry jam when she told them she only had strawberry, they wanted her to wash new water glasses rather than taking them from the shelf because otherwise they couldn't be "sure" that they were clean, they wanted all three of their drinks immediately after the omlettes were served "not before! not during! IMMEDIATELY AFTER! ALL THREE OF THEM!" So I noticed them early, is what I'm saying.

And then they came over and sat down immediately in my line of sight. And one of the women picked up a toothpick and, sitting there complaining vociferously, began to skritch the toothpick around her ear canal. Skritch, skritch, skrtich, she didn't even seem to notice she was doing it, but nonetheless kept at it for five minutes before switching to the other ear. Skritch, skritch, skritch, went the toothpick.

Then she stuck the toothpick in her mouth, licked it clean, and returned to ear number one.

So I came home to do my reading, is what I'm saying.