Politeness, Common Decency, and Being Hopelessly Oblivious
Or: Be a decent person to everyone, but especially service workers.
I am sitting in a cafe writing this at the moment. My morning was pretty terrible, so I needed a change of scenery this afternoon to be able to really get anything done today. It happens sometimes, as many creative types will tell you.
When I entered, I did what many cafe patrons do: I ordered coffee, collected my drink, sat down, and set up shop. Because I have spent a lot of time around certain types of people, I selected a table that allowed me to survey the whole cafe while keeping my back to a wall. This seat also had the benefit of being near both an exit and a bathroom, which was just a bonus as far as I was concerned.
However, after I set up shop, spread myself and my technology out, and spent ten minutes or so trying to figure out what to write, I realized that I had made a crucial error. No, it wasn’t “never get involved in a land war in Asia,” but rather I had occupied one of the coveted four-top tables in the cafe. By myself. Like a jackass.
In my defense, I am kind of oblivious to a lot of social conventions, so initially, I thought I had snagged a high-quality spot in a not-so-busy cafe. However, after the aforementioned (and somewhat…
