April 13, 2007
I added a new segment to my morning routine. After bypassing the Owings Mills Dunkin Donuts for so long, I've padded my A.M. to include the savory pit-stop. It's a win win situation. I figure if I stop before work rather than go during, I save myself the lackluster drive sans hot coffee beverage, the time away from my desk, and most importantly, the fear of falling flat on my face on Calvert Street again.
I see the same people every morning. The young guy at the middle table by the window, always surrounded by books, facing the wall, with his "Great One" coffee in front of him within fingertip reach. I see the very talkative man who is always crossing Reisterstown Road to get his morning fix right around the time I park to get mine. The two older men, likely retired, that must meet there for "away from wife" time every morning at 7 am sharp. Anyway, there's a similarity between my new Dunkin pals. Unlike me, who gets to the counter, says "Good morning, extra large blueberry light cream no sugar please," and then pays my $1.98 after being rung up, these others never even speak to the ringer-uppers. They just get rung up, and handed their "usual."
I know there are downfalls to having a usual. I remember this happened to me once back in the day...where I'd walk in to what used to be my favorite bar, The North Star, and Bobby the New York bartender would have a Bud Light bottle on the edge of the bar for me...which was great until May hit and I was ready to start drinking a Corona. I never had a beer waiting at the end of the bar for me again.
Even so, I want a usual at Dunks. What will it take? Do I need to simplify my order? Am I too complicated since I hold the sugar and cut the cream? Or is it the unlikely blueberry flavoring that throws off the Mr. and Miss behind the counter? Will there ever come a day that my unusual usual is just the usual? And if and when that day comes, I can't help but wonder, will my usual have become my usual-ly?
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4 comments:
I had forgotten about your fall. Ahh, good times. ;)
Fine observations! Yes, why do some people let others into their routines, almost without saying a word, yet others are left out? Why do some people feel right and others wrong for such simple rituals?
What about my stranger-friend at the OM DD, do you see him? You'll know it's him if you ask him about his VW Beetle from 1975. If you drive up in a bug from any year, he'll start a conversatio with you.
And don't worry--they will eventually get your usual right.
mmm gotta love the blueberry =)
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