Hip to be Square.

As you all ( all= 3 ) know I am leaving the beloved District of Columbia next week to pursue the path of higher education. In my 2 years of residence in the city, I lived in 2 predominantly hipster/indie rock/ coffee with laptops neighborhoods. I have experienced a lot of the events that most normal 20 something young professionals part take in. However, I have never sat in a trendy coffee shop and worked on my laptop and drank a latte.

So today, my first day of unemployment from the evil law firm, I decided to do just that.
I went to Tryst today, laptop bag slung across my good shoulder. I wore an ironic t-shirt ( of course ) to make myself more believable. I got a good seat by the front windows. I pulled out my laptop and powered up. The next crucial step was to find the right music to play while sitting in this new, yet intriguing, atmosphere. I went to my usual choices, but then I strayed over to something that I like but don't listen to on heavy rotation. This choice was perfect, it blended in amazingly with the DC hipster/indie rock/ coffee with laptops scene -- Ted Leo. Next I went to order a caffeinated beverage, hopefully I would get it in an oversized mug a la Alice in Wonderland. The hot, inked up waitress asks for my order and I ask for a Chai Latte. I don’t drink coffee so that’s what I had to settle for since I needed to get something with Latte in it to fulfill the experience. So then I pulled up some work that I had to finish up. I start working, and it was completely impossible to get anything done. I kept looking at people and wondering what the hell are they reading, working on, or staring at? There was an older gentleman there across the couch from me who was “reading” the Financial Times. In actuality he wasn’t reading at all, he was using that to stare at a group of hot Catholic Law students studying for the bar. That led me to wonder why the fuck anyone would choose such a loud, social setting to study for the bar? So I kept trying to work, but that didn’t really happen because an acquaintance of mine walked in after seeing me from the sidewalk. “Anand ? What the fuck are you doing in here? Are you working?” I proceeded to tell him the reason why I was there. He didn’t buy it, and he kept insisting that I go with him to get wasted in honor of not having a job anymore. After a few back and forth denials he said peace and left.

Now, it was time to get to work. As soon as I began working, the waitress came over with the Chai Latte and plopped down next to me. "How do you know him", I told her I met him through some of my drunken adventures in Adams Morgan. Then she went on to say how he was a scumbag and he screwed her roommate over…blah, blah, blah. To which I responded, “no way, he doesn’t seem like a guy that would do that” but that was a blatant lie and I couldn’t keep a straight face saying that. One thing leads to another and this girl was asking me my whole story and I told her the reason why I was in there. She thought that it was hilarious and clever and said she couldn’t wait to read about it. I scrawled the URL to this blog on a napkin and she wished me “Good Luck with my assignment.” (Score-new hot, inked up, indie rock reader)

All right, now the headphones are back on and the music has been turned up and now I will finish up what I need to do and sip on my large Alice in Wonderland mug filled with Chai Latte. I worked hard for a good 15 minutes before I decided to take a “scone” break. I went and purchased a scone and returned to my seat, then I worked for another 20 mins and decided to leave

So, in conclusion, I went to a trendy coffee shop wearing an ironic t-shirt, worked on my laptop while sipping a Latte. The criteria were met and I introduced my blog to a new reader. Not bad, I guess I can understand the reason why people go to coffee shops to do work on their laptops but I still think it’s stupid (Other than the free Wi-Fi connections). I was there for a good 90 minutes and only worked for 35 minutes. Oh well, at least I can say that I have done everything that a predominantly hipster/indie rock/ coffee with laptops neighborhood requires (except cocaine or heroine) Word.