The Chairs.

I was waiting for a student at a Starbucks recently, and while she didn't show up because of a miscommunication it did yield some hilarious results. For the record, I tutor English on the side to make some extra money. Anyway, while waiting there a tall, mid-thirties Taiwanese man with long hair walks in and sits at the table next to me. Almost immediately after sitting down at the table(which had three chairs around it) he got up, walked away from the table, turned around, placed his hand to his chin (clearly considering the situation deeply) and stared. Now clearly me and the other people around him were curious, because I was not the only one taking repeated glances at him, and then to his bag which he had placed to the side of his chair. Now apparently he concluded that his bag was in a very dubious position indeed because he returned to his chair, picked up the bag, placed it on the other side of the chair, and then promptly sat down on the chair opposite his original seat.

He didn't do anything strange again for a few minutes or so. I had thought he was just waiting for someone like I was. Just moving things around for the, albeit odd, optimal greeting position. I was wrong. Sometime later he again he arouse to consider the apparently deeply troubling furniture. Except this time, it wasn't his table. Nay, for his had been "fixed", rather it was the dastardly, foul position of the chairs behind his table! The plot thickens.

He quickly seized a chair from the no doubt frequented-by-scoundrels table, and placed it away from it, with the seat facing towards the wall. After much consideration, he then placed another chair in the same position immediately next to it. Crisis averted, he returned to his chair. He also turned his chair towards the wall except this time he sat. Alas, something was amiss. He looked from the chairs to his table, table to his chairs. Moving his head to see the chairs at different angles. Thankfully, he thought better of his choice in tables and left. Now I know this sounds quick, but this actually went on for five whole minutes or so. Clearly he couldn't handle the stress of the situation anymore, and neither could I. I broke down and undoubtedly from stress induced hysteria I began to laugh for some time to myself.

Things became less interesting. He stood partially behind a wall waiting to use the bathroom, so I again became aware of my situation. I soon after decided that there must have been some miscommunication and I was not meeting with my student that night. So I got up to leave, only to find that the man had not been waiting for the bathroom at all, but rather had just been staring into the other part of Starbucks. Danger was afoot. Just as I came up to pass him, though, he began to walk towards the back part of the room. He had found sanctuary: a large, plush chair in the corner near the window. Perhaps the battle was over, perhaps it had just begun. I do not know, I wanted to leave. Godspeed.

In other news, my picasa account is apparently all filled up and I can't put more media on my account so until it's resolved I can't really make posts with media in them (apparently?) I'll figure it out eventually.

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