October 9, 2009

Macrophobia - the fear of waiting, long waits.




Macrophobia - the fear of long waits and of waiting!

Nothing represents to me weirdness more than a drive-thru Starbucks, or more specifically the one in my 'hood'. I kind of get the one on Sante Fe and other pull offs on the way to a downtown or uptown destination, where there is no foot traffic and no lobby.

But this one is smack dab in the middle of suburbia.

Okay, the other day I pulled into the starbucks and parked. I walked in and got my coffee and walked out to sit in the sun on the patio. The car that was in line outside, parallel to the table I had set my laptop on to hold the table (afraid to wait for a table I suppose) was still behind ten other cars that had literally still not moved an inch.

The woman in the car had her window rolled down and was on her cell phone (and putting on her eye makeup and instructing an overly patient toddler who was fidgeting in her car seat), complaining to the unseen other side of the conversation person, about how long it was taking to get her coffee and how she cannot function in the morning until she has had it.

My fear of one-sided conversation CELLPHONEOPHOBIA started to take hold of me and the distraction of hearing her blow by blow frustration about the wait distracted me from adding to the next great American novel.

Finally she had moved up a car length and it had at this point been somewhere in the fifteen minute zone.
Did I mention that her and now the other fifteen cars piled up in the line had their engines running taking what was a $4 cup of latte now to probably about $8 and likely one of those nifty little milks for her daughter which would run her another $3.


She would have done much better to have walked in,
spent the time relaxing on the patio under the sun, with her daughter, than the half hour she spent talking, er complaining on her cell phone and waiting for her cup of latte (how did I know what she got? She told the person on the other end of the line maybe three times, info that wasn't interesting the first time. Perhaps Twitter would have enjoyed knowing it?)
So, I guess since I am unwilling to sit in "traffic" for a cup of coffee, I am qualified as a Macrophobic! And now with my iphone I can order my two favorite vices (Starbucks and Chipotle) from my phone and it will be waiting for me in the express lane! Ahhhhhh.....

1 comment:

tech teacher said...

You've got a whole story in and of itself just by observing the craziness at Starbucks.