I walked into my favorite coffee house watering hole late in the day when only one other customer was around. I knew the three staff behind the counter. turns out they had just been commenting amongst themselves about how after a certain time of day they should be allowed to be blunt and honest with customers.

the ringleader, a woman friend of mine, saw me walk in and repeated this loud enough for me to hear. then she started in on me -- "Can't you get drip coffee for a change? Must you have your press pot?" she turned to J and said, "He can't do it. He's always so nice. He never says anything mean."

I said that sounds like a challenge and proceeded to address him, "Can I get my press pot NOW! Why are you so slow? C'mon, I want service" to which he somehow dug deep and meekly eeked out a "Shut up, lady" to which we all roared with laughter. I gave him a round of applause and a high five. and then he said to me, "You know, I really didn't mean that" to which I responded "Anymore of that and we're gonna hafta do this again."

as I left, I told him I was going somewhere where the people are nice to me.