But Don't Deliver My Mocha
I'm in the throes of major project overload for my final year in grad school, so that means it must time for a blog post. LOL. I'm studying at my "branch office"; one of the local Starbucks where every barista knows my name. When I came up for air to order a decaf mocha (drink #2 today folks), I got hit with this thought. So here goes...
Today's North American culture is increasingly directed to living well without leaving home. Think about it. With Amazon you can sit with your broken foot on ice and travel to any store and item you like. I ought to know, that's how I've survived this fall, pun unintended. When the array of packages began to flow, my bewildered husband asked where they came from. "From right here," I gestured, using game-show-model-hand-gestures to sweep over the chair and ottoman that has been my perch.
Not only can Amazon ring your doorbell practically the second after you hit "place order", you can hire a service to go around town to the restaurants you're craving food from and they'll bring it to you. Nearly every grocery store not only delivers or has a service that does, most have a drive-up service allowing you to have your order placed in your car. You can do this in your pajamas. We just had carpet installed from a company that brought everything to us. No pesky showrooms. You can receive perfect dinner prep kits with each ingredient neatly measured and ready for your chop. You can upload pictures or kid art and receive a beautifully bound book in the mail a week later. Want to know more people without ever leaving your home? What do you think your YouTube channel is for? We can even scare ourselves by going to online medical sites and self-diagnosing. We really can stay home in front of the fireplace if we want or need to. (But maybe be a little careful on those internet sites.)
With all of the convenience we can summon to our front door, I find it oxymoronic that the one thing people still like to do in public is to bring all their stuff to a coffee shop and show others that they're working. Kind of like our dog Spot. She carries nuggets of her kibble to the living room to show us she's eating. We used to work at home. Or at the office. But why not bring your scrapbook or crafts? Knit in a chair with a chai tea at your side? Unload a rolling suitcase full of books? Illustrate a book? A few years ago in one Starbucks secretly known as an office zone, a woman had snagged a coveted corner booth for the day. She even brought her pencil cup and a vase of flowers. Another time I had to go to a Caribou (due to location issues) and found a man at the back who had brought in his 30" desk monitor! It was larger than the table. That's dedication.
So who are we then? We like to go out and customize a public place and yet we also like to have other public places bring us exactly what we want when we're home. We're multi-dimensional curiosities, aren't we? Sign me up.
Not only can Amazon ring your doorbell practically the second after you hit "place order", you can hire a service to go around town to the restaurants you're craving food from and they'll bring it to you. Nearly every grocery store not only delivers or has a service that does, most have a drive-up service allowing you to have your order placed in your car. You can do this in your pajamas. We just had carpet installed from a company that brought everything to us. No pesky showrooms. You can receive perfect dinner prep kits with each ingredient neatly measured and ready for your chop. You can upload pictures or kid art and receive a beautifully bound book in the mail a week later. Want to know more people without ever leaving your home? What do you think your YouTube channel is for? We can even scare ourselves by going to online medical sites and self-diagnosing. We really can stay home in front of the fireplace if we want or need to. (But maybe be a little careful on those internet sites.)
With all of the convenience we can summon to our front door, I find it oxymoronic that the one thing people still like to do in public is to bring all their stuff to a coffee shop and show others that they're working. Kind of like our dog Spot. She carries nuggets of her kibble to the living room to show us she's eating. We used to work at home. Or at the office. But why not bring your scrapbook or crafts? Knit in a chair with a chai tea at your side? Unload a rolling suitcase full of books? Illustrate a book? A few years ago in one Starbucks secretly known as an office zone, a woman had snagged a coveted corner booth for the day. She even brought her pencil cup and a vase of flowers. Another time I had to go to a Caribou (due to location issues) and found a man at the back who had brought in his 30" desk monitor! It was larger than the table. That's dedication.
So who are we then? We like to go out and customize a public place and yet we also like to have other public places bring us exactly what we want when we're home. We're multi-dimensional curiosities, aren't we? Sign me up.
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