Cabin Fever is an illness that plagues me on a regular basis. I cannot stand to be cooped up inside for too long so I have a tendency to seek places that will allow me to be in an environment that supports a certain "busyness" if you will.
Case and point, when I am out at a local cafe researching things online, I like to hit up Borders Cafe i.e. Seattle's Best (GREAT COFFEE!) or Panera Bread. These places have frequent visitors who either breeze in and out or sit down and peruse through their favorite magazine or book. I am able to get my "dose" of people watching while being around people but not "really" being around people. Sometimes I want to be alone but not by myself, if that makes sense. I can sit in the house all day and do the same thing but it gets really old, really fast.
I have been noticing an increasing trend of a certain type of person hanging out in these places. They don't necessarily fit a typical profile but the common denominator is that they come in with bags and baggage or they fall asleep or sometimes they do both. There has been a bit of a cold snap that slapped Florida really hard and many are seeking refuge from the cold which could be why there is an increase in population here at these cafes....or could it be that people feel like I do when I simply do not want to be alone?
Allow me to give you a visual of what I am currently seeing:
Man #1 - White male. 60-something years old. 5'11" and 200+ pounds. Seated in a leather chair with his back to a window. Balding with salt and pepper hair in a horse-shoe shape around his head. Brown Ecco shoes that look as though they have been just-the-right-amount of worn-in. Navy blue fleece jacket, no stains or rips. No books. No magazines. Just simply looking around.
Man #2 - Black male. 50-57 years of age. 5'9" 180+ pounds with a round stomach. Seated on the middle-right side of the room. Black baseball cap-clean. Yellow and black small striped polo-style shirt. Grew sweatshirt. Green blazer. Black slacks with a silver (hmmm) belt. Black high-top Nike's sneakers with the heel worn on the right shoe only. He has a cell phone and keeps checking it. He is marking jobs in a local employment guide in between gazing out of the window with a "how did I get here" look on his face.
Man #3 - Black male. 40-50 years old-hard to tell because his skin looks good but his face looks a little hard. 6 ' 4" inches tall and about 210 pounds-very solid but lean. Seated near the wall in between two windows. Tan jacket with the hood covering his bald head. Carpenter construction boots - worn but just from dirt. Khaki's that appear to be clean, A laptop that is streaming live sports news. Has his own lunch that he brought and is eating and a cup of water he asked the barrista for an hour ago. He seems to have been here for longer than I and my stay is clocking in at 3 hours right about now. He is also reading what appears to be War and Peace while he is listening to sports through his earphones.
Man #4 - White male. 25-27 years old. 5'6" 150 pounds. Seated near a window. True Religion Jeans...okay let me say that I needed to mention that first because I am a self-proclaimed fashion whore and I know for a fact that those jeans cost between $150 - $332 a pair. So ummm..yeah, either he knows where to get knock-offs or he he invested a month to 3 month's worth of my groceries in a pair of denim. Back to Mr. TR, I will call him. Spiky hair. White hoodie- can't tell the name brand from here but I know it belongs to somebody's label peddling company. A red pair of high-top leather Adidas sneakers that look purposely worn, probably courtesy of an eBay seller who invested a lot of time in making them appear that way for a price that reflects his time and efforts! A large- screened laptop and a few gossip mags. I doubt he does not have internet access at home, nor is he working so I have to wonder, what is he doing here?
Woman #1-Brown-skinned female. Not sure if she is of Indian/Asian or West Indian descent. 30-something years old. About 5 feet even and a good 155 pounds. Seated in the middle of the room. Black/dark-brown hair in a bobbed hairstyle. Black closed in shoes that are in near perfect condition with about a 2 inch heel. Black turtle-neck sweater and gray cardigan. She is eating a pastry from the cafe and drinking a cup of water. She keeps looking at me strangely probably wondering why I am looking around and writing but I avoid eye contact as I describe her behavior and belongings. Her black handbag is not real leather but a very impressive substitute. She has one item that looks like a handbook of some sort. I wish I could get a closer look but I don't want to run the risk of being asked point blank, "What the eff are you looking at and why are you coming over here?" I can feel it getting closer to that point. She has not turned the page of the book for at least 14 minutes so perhaps she just wanted something in front of her as she ate the whipped cream-topped danish. I am happy to be moving on to the next person.
Woman #2 - White female. 60-70 years old. Seated in a leather chair with her back to the largest window in the cafe. Her sweater looks like one you would wear at Christmas but it looks like it has hearts on it and she is wearing a white button-down shirt underneath and is sipping a blended coffee beverage reading an arts and crafts magazine with a bag full or yarn on the floor next to her. Hmm...I wonder what she will be doing next....
There are several people who have come and gone since my first description but to sum it up, they were all neatly dressed with paperwork or laptops or fancy phones they were intently working on.
You can't really judge a person's situation based on what you see. Some who look homeless have cell phones and laptops. Looking at me, I appear to be very well put together with clean and hardly-worn clothing. I have a laptop and a shiny mug on my table. My laptop bag is high-end and my handbag was in the mid-range cost of Mr. TR's jeans. All of these things were purchased over the years and while I had gainful employment. I have been looking for work for over a year and have yet to find anything. I am reaching the end of my unemployment and the hopeful twinkle I had in my eye and the resilience I had in my spirit have since dimmed. Times are hard and people are even harder when it comes to having hope. I have noticed that most I have seen are compassionate when it comes to sharing resources and outlets when your laptop battery is about to die.
I hope that with all of what we are going through it can teach us all to have a little more patience, understanding (cue the violins and Miss America music) and true concern for one another. Although I am low on funds, I make sure I offer to buy the guy who has been sipping on a cup of water for the last 2 hours a cup of hot coffee. Not because I want to be a martyr but because I genuinely feel for others who could possibly be going through what I am. It may also be the only warm thing or anything other than water, he may have today.
I will never forget this experience that I am going through and I will forever be changed.
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