Life is full of coincidences, don’t you think?  I do.  Happens all the time – someone tells you something and you say “I was just talking to so and so about that yesterday!”  Right?  Sometimes there’s a reason an idea keeps popping up – it means you’re supposed to do something with it.  I had one of those this week.

I took my laptop and all my work-related accoutrements to the local coffee shop.  I placed my order and went in search of a place to sit.  As I walked down the aisle between two rows of occupied tables, I hearkened back to my experience on the school bus.  There was a boy, whose name I will withhold out of pity, who walked a similar aisle each morning to find all the seats were filled with backpacks, books or whatever else was handy and everyone was either carefully studying their shoes or mesmerized by something out the window. You see,  this unfortunate little boy had a constant stream of snot of running from his nose, which made him a less than desirable seat-mate.  This is what I was thinking about as I scanned the tables, looking for a place to sit, while others were very engaged in their work, or their phone call, or whatever, and seemingly did not notice me.

Confident that I’ve been booger-free for at least a few decades, I forged ahead.  When I got to the last table, occupied by a girl with a book who was sipping some frozen strawberry goodness, I asked if I might share her table.  Of course she said “sure”, because what else is there really to say unless you’re a complete jackass, which is not out of the question, I suppose. 

And so we went on like this, all of use working, heads down, getting our afternoon java fix, isolated.  Until one guy spilled his coffee and we all heard that unmistakable sound of ice cubes clinking and liquid splashing.  “Pick up your laptop, quick” I  reminded him as another woman plopped down a bunch of napkins.  I went to the counter and grabbed a rag and we all had a good laugh about the crises averted while he mopped up the mess.  Suddenly the walls were down and we were comrades.

The very next day, a blog post  from Build a Little Biz lands in my inbox and the subject is “The Coffice“.  You guessed it, The Coffee Shop/Office.  I read it and realized that these people at the coffee shop are my colleagues; a group of us who escape our home office or our “real” office and take refuge someplace more interesting.  If I were to frequent the same place, I would probably see the same “coffice-mates” over and over.  I might get to know their names, build relationships, and network.  It’s entirely possible that these people are as open to connecting as I am.  And by “open” of course I mean “desperate for adult conversation”.

It’s kind of nice, for people who generally work alone, to think that there are others out there who are interested in being “alone together”.  I haven’t worked in office for just about 8 years to the day now and I didn’t realize how much I missed it.  Well, to be honest, I don’t actually miss it in the least but I do, at times, long for co-workers.  I’ve always wondered why people would camp out at Starbucks all day but now I sort of get it.  Even though I have a gorgeous new studio, which I adore, I think a weekly trip to the “Coffice” may be just what the doctor ordered. 

How about you?  Do you work in an office or alone?  Do you miss working with other people?  Do you ever go to the Coffice?  Leave a comment and let me know!

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