I like you a latte!

So I have been working part time at a cafe for a few months now. I find that I really enjoy life in the service sector, even when my feet hurt at the end of the day. No workday is the same, customers are always unique, my coworkers are friendly and the opportunities for people watching are endless.

One of my coworkers said that our cafe is mostly frequented by middle-aged ladies and dating couples. I guess that's true enough, but we also get exchange students, study groups, Spanish teachers, the owners of the store next door, movie-goers and people who set up their laptops to concentrate on work projects. I still have no framework for how to analyze people by what they do to their coffee cup sleeves: if they shred it into tiny square pieces, does it mean they are hyperactive, nervous, bored or just like to fiddle?

First dates are my favorites to observe. You can pick them out by their shy and polite gazes. Their postures are slightly awkward, not having reached that level of comfort with someone to just lean back and be relaxed. If he is interested, he leans forward. If she's interested, she holds eye-contact. I do get exasperated at the cash register though, if it is obvious that the couple is on a date, and then they are awkward about the payment, and he doesn't offer to do so. If there's a scuffle, I put my two cents in and make him pay. Hih. C'mon guys, you always pay! And if an independent Finnish woman's wrath makes you shy of doing so, be brave anyway. Can she get miffed at you for being a gentleman??!

But cafe romance is not dead, as my other coworker commented to me. A customer came up and had misplaced his frequent buyer card, and asked for another one. He returned later, saying he had found his old card, and gave her back the new one. On it he had written to ask her out, and put yes or no check boxes for her answer! When I arrived on the scene, he was calmly drinking his coffee at a table and waiting for her answer. What can one say to such creativity, but yes!?

taking a moment

I ended my last post with thoughts of snow. I begin this one along the same theme, because we finally got some!!! Actually, it seems like there's a lot right now. I don't recall a day last winter that I had to wade through white powder and look through windows rimmed in ice crystals. It's enchanting. Sonja and I were wandering home late last night when we decided to turn on the sauna and then go jump into the snow drifts. It's nice to have a crazy someone to do things like that with, seeing as it was about 1 am....

I think I'm suffering the wearying effects of a late night today, though. Apparently I'm not as young as I once was. So I sit here and watch the snow fall and the daylight fade before 4 pm. I shall light candles, and ensconce myself in a blanket on the couch after I have made a cup of coffee, and turn my attention to some texts about Arabic love theory. Since my brain has been chock-full of the topic recently, let me offer you a quote from my overfilled mental files. Regarding the definition of love, as told by a Mu'tazilite scholar from Basra to the Vizier Yahya ibn Khalid (sometime at the end of the 700s):

"As long as it is moderate, it is sweet, but if it passes certain limits it becomes a madness which leads to death, a mysterious sickness for which no cure can be hoped. It pours forth on the heart like a rain cloud and makes troubles sprout and grief bear fruit. A man overwhelmed by love suffers without respite."

Should that definition sound way too depressing to you, I'll leave you with the following link to a song about the effects of being in love. If anything, may it make you smile. I first heard it when a fairy-esque Finnish Idols competitor sang it, and charmed the socks right off me! And since I don't know how to embed videos on these posts, just click HERE!

finn-tastic!

I got inspired to write napkin poetix during yesterday's rainy afternoon as I sat at a cafe table and waited for Sonja. The text isn't stellar, but the main marvel of this is that it is in Finnish. That's a first, so I felt the need for documentary evidence! My inspirations came from a conversation, a text message, and the memory of an open window. I love the sound of rain on the roof, and we've had a fair share of it recently. So, each little scribble has to do with rain. I won't offer a translation, because, well, I can't.

But on the topic of more Finnishness, can I tell you how much I appreciate a sauna!? We have our own, which we enjoy thoroughly. But one evening we also visited my aunt and uncle at their new home. We got to sit in their huge new sauna and drink pommac and enjoy good löylyjä (uh...the steam that rises from the stones when you throw water over them). Then when it became imperative to escape the heat, we moved to the back terrace where the cold night air refreshed us and only the darkened woods observed the steam rising from our skin! It was entirely enjoyable. Perhaps later this winter we'll have snow, and then we can go roll in it to cool off! :)

penny for your thoughts

the coin has two sides every
time
until now i've seen only one,
mine.
is your side confused or
clear?
like mine, tinted by pain or
fear?
perhaps if we talked we'd
see
what it is we really
mean.