OCD To The Max

I sat in Starbucks this morning, as I do every morning, sipping a double tall, whole milk, one splenda latte, working a little and watching people. I watch people a lot more than I drink coffee or work. It's been a daily ritual for years.

I think all of the people I know from my little town I've met at Starbucks. I know the Starbucks regulars and their rituals. There is one couple, however, I'm always amazed by. Even though I've watched them for several years, I still can't believe what I hear or see on a daily basis.

They come in every day with their ceramic coffee cups, newspaper and a tote bag of who knows what. They order their coffee and sit at their table by the window and go over the paper. They're probably in their late 60s. The wife is very nice and the husband is polite, but you can tell the bark is just beneath the surface.

She likes to do the word puzzles and he likes to read the articles, complaining out loud on each article he reads. They drink their coffee then go for re-fills.

They usually spend a couple of hours there, I guess which means so I do since I know that little fact, and during their time there the husband straightens every chair when a customer leaves one out of it's proper place. He arranges the bags of coffee in their baskets, he wipes the tables, grumbling all the while.

Usually he doesn't bother me much, I know what he does, but today for some reason I couldn't take it. He was everywhere, moving every table, every chair and cleaning up after everyone in between grumbling about the news of the day.

I looked at his wife in amazement. There's no way I could have been married to him as long as she has been, he would have driven absolutely nuts, kind of like he did today.

Maybe I was just on edge this morning, but I sure was glad when he took their coffee cups, as usual, to the bathroom and cleaned every trace of coffee from them, packed them in the tote alongside the newspaper and rearranged the furniture on their way out of the store.  

And I was so glad he couldn't read my thoughts.

Oh, and there's a blogger I've been reading for a while and I wanted to introduce you to her. She is an amazing writer and I wanted to send you her way. If you like her she has a link to subscribe via email. Go check her out and tell her I sent you. Her name is Lalalady and you can find her blog here. The name of her blog is Ramblings Of An Old Woman. I think you'll like her, she has such a wonderful way with words.