Morning coffee at Bongo Burgers

I went to Bongo Burger on Dwight & Tele this morning for my morning coffee. Trying to shake the cobwebs out of my brain (I drank a little too much last night, believe it or not). Plus, I had a disturbing scene at my campsite this morning (but that’s another story). So I’m in what you might call a somber mood. I’m the only customer in there, so I get my coffee and take it to a table at the far side of the room. And I’m sitting there drinking my coffee and reading the newspaper (the sports page is about the only thing I can handle in the morning).When this other customer comes into the joint, places his order at the counter, and bounds over to the table directly in front of me. I’ve got my backpack sitting on the chair on the other side of my table. So he has to kind of wedge himself into the space between my chair and the chair at his table. And he bumps into the chair at my table with his backpack in the process. And I’m sort of grumbling to myself, because it feels like an invasion of my space. Plus, everytime I look up I can’t avoid looking at him because he’s sitting right in front of me.

So I figure he wants my attention. But then, on the other hand, this could just be his favorite table that he takes every time he comes to Bongo Burger. So what the hell.

But no. He immediately tries to engage me in conversation. “When I saw that guitar on your baseball hat, the first thing I thought was that it was the Monkees logo!!” he says, with a big, friendly smile.

I give him just slightest bit of a nod, to let him know that I am acknowledging his existence — I don’t want to just blow him off like a rude asshole. But I also want to convey that I’m not in the mood for conversation (about the Monkees or about anything for that matter). And put my head down and go back to staring at my newspaper.

Later, as I was walking down Telegraph, I mulled the incident over in my mind. Wondering if he had been the rude one for butting into my business. Or if I had been the rude one for rebuffing his friendly and harmless gesture.

I finally concluded that there was nothing wrong with him trying to reach out to another person with friendliness. And there was also nothing wrong with me not being in the mood to be reached out to.

I probably think too much.

Though I think he was in the wrong when he later tried to engage me in Peter Tork trivia. And I was in the wrong when I screamed in his face at the top of my lungs and over-turned his table. (kidding)