It’s been a while since I’ve written at the cafe – a while since I’ve sent out a volley of ‘This is cafe culture‘ texts to all my friends with accompanying lame photo of my cup of peppermint herbal tea. Mainly it’s been because the joys of summer are at and around our home, where the gardens and pool are the only atmosphere I seek or desire. For better or worse, however, I need to get into planning and plotting the Fall 2026 season of this website, and that isn’t going to happen lounging by the pool and eating bonbons. Would that it could. So it is that I find myself entering the cafe on a Friday afternoon when the sun is still hanging in the sky after a tumultuous week of wet and wild weather.
My favorite barista is working on this early evening in which I resume cafe culture, and she greets me excitedly, saying it’s been a while and asking what I’m doing with my notebook on a Friday night. I told her I was getting back into my writing routine, and she said I looked tan and must have been enjoying my summer. Sometimes it’s easier to smile and pretend and say some innocuous thing instead of the deep and detailed truth of how any one of us is really feeling at any given time, so I did. It’s easier for everyone, and less potentially awkward, and on this night I am very much seeking ease and comfort and reassurance that I’m still here, that I’m still myself, that I still have the power to astound. Because of this, I was especially glad to see her. Some people have that comforting effect – they are rare and wonderful and make this wretched world worthwhile. Though I barely know her, I know she is one of those people.
After I ask her how she has been, she pauses and tells me that she was getting ready to move. I assume it’s just across town, or to Albany or Clifton Park or something – but she goes on to say she’s moving down South, just outside of Atlanta, Georgia to be with her family. My heart sank to think that my favorite barista would be leaving, especially as I was just beginning to think we might become friends – a new step for me as other friends pull back or disappear entirely from my life. She also has such a great spirit and vibe that I will miss her presence in the cafe, and the possibility that we might have become closer.
We’ll see if I muster the courage to slip her my contact info to stay in touch, or if I’ll come to my senses and stop acting so desperate. I asked my friend Paula if she thought it was weird to try to connect like that at this point, and she said I should go for it. Most of my friends have kids and families of their own, and I think part of me wants to expand my social circle just a little bit, to make some meaningful connections as I barrel down the second half of life.
Summer has made a vulnerable mess of me this year it seems – messier even than my usual messy self.
As we wrap up our conversation, I tell her I’ll have to stop in more before she leaves – she’s says I don’t have to do that, and that I should keep working on my tan and enjoying the summer.
