LIKE IT WAS

I will admit that change is good (most of the time). Today though was just too much for me at once. My friend and I decided to go to our favorite local (non-Starbucks) coffee house to unwind after work. Said coffee house used to be a regular hang out of mine when it was literally my neighborhood coffee spot (now, it's a few miles away). It has been a few months since I've been there because things have been so insanely crazy as of late. Last time I was there, they had remodeled part of the counter/kitchen-employee area and moved the cream and sugar area outside. So, coming in tonite, seeing this change wasn't a big deal. But behind the counter, were COMPLETE strangers! In my heyday, I had befriended the folks behind the counter -- we hung out before, chatted, joked around -- all good times. For obvious reasons, I looked forward to going to said coffee shop because in addition to just being a cool, fun place to go, I had friends who worked there. Right, so back to my discovery...

I walk in, and instead of being the two cool guys I used to look forward to giving a hard time and chatting with, there were three new people (did I come on their off day? Still, I knew everyone who worked there, and I didn't know these people). In addition to new people, I look in the dessert case and there are also new cakes going on! What!? The one cake my friend had been talking about for months (Pistachio cake -- really good) that this place only had once as a "trial cake" is now in the case as a "regular" (or so I think). While this is great news for my friend, it just adds to this whole change in the evening. New cake, new people...see what I mean?! :)

Ok, so we're sitting, talking...feeling so weird that our pals aren't around and wondering what was going on, when we hear that they're no longer working at the coffee house! This is even more disturbing! Have I been gone that long? Apparently so. One has found a new job and the other is just bumming around doing something or another. So in addition to being wired (because we think we were given fully caffeinated coffee instead of decaf) we are sitting there tonite...surprised and slightly baffled that so much time has gone by and we missed our friends' departure. Going to the coffee house won't be the same now.

This gets even better. My friend's friend lives down the street from the coffee house, so we decide to walk over and say hi. We ring the doorbell and over the intercom, we hear an unfamiliar voice. Looking at each other, we wonder if we got the wrong door. At the point where my friend is about to ring the next door neighbor's doorbell, the first door opens and some guy who isn't my friend's friend comes out. We both look confused. I wonder who this dude is. Half drunk, this guy asks if his party was too loud (what party? All I see is darkness and hear women's voices in the background. Yeah, no thanks, not my kind of party) and then asks who we are and tells us he just moved in a few weeks ago. We explain and then he gives us both hugs (I told you he was drunk) and mumbles his name. Nice. He asks us to come in for drinks. We both politely decline...several times. The guy looks insulted and asks again if we're sure as he walks back into his place shocked that we turned him down. My friend and I walk away doubled over in laughter at what happened and confused as to this new dude.

Riiiiight, so in conclusion...change is fine, when it doesn't completely screw with your head. The change at the coffee house was one thing -- manageable and really not a big deal at all, just unexpected. If you top that though, with the weird guy living in my friend's friend's place (with said friend's friend nowhere to be found), well that's just baffling. Mind you, said friend's friend has two places in LA and lives more consistently at the other place, but still...it is a bit weird nobody knew about said friend's friend moving until we knocked on the door. Said friend's friend also speaks often with my friend, so it's not as if they never talk or see each other. Weird says I. Or weirder still is that I used the phrase "said friend's friend" as often as possible because it amused me. See, I said I was wired from the coffee!!!!