i love earplugs

I am cheating on my favorite coffeeshop (the Black Cat Cafe on Alberta and 12th). Instead of walking all the way up there to study, I decided instead to check out a new joint that just opened up very near my house. It's called Bean (I think) and it's on Prescott and 15th. I don't think I like it. The flaming barrista is playing some really loud, really annoying music and the cavernous and echoey place has been full of loud, shrill young women jabbering about personal gossip I'd rather not listen to.

Enter: my bright orange earplugs which I am in love with. I pinch them and roll them and shove them down my ear canals and viola! The outside world of racket begins to fade to a tiny little buzz and I sink even deeper into my own little happy, muffled reality. I like my happy, muffled reality.

Plusses of Bean? It's open and spacey and sunny. Also, there's a gorgeous photograph of an old, rusty car on a bright Cuban street in the bathroom. If I had money I'd offer to buy that photo. I love it. One final plus is that it's close to my house. Very close. Minuses? Besides the gripes I've already mentioned, I was offered my house coffee in a paper cup even though I was staying. No ceramic, reusable mugs? What about the trees, for god's sake??

Also, the prices are a little higher than they need to be (ie: my 12oz. paper cup of house coffee cost me a quarter more than my giant soup bowl of house coffee at the Black Cat yesterday). And the atmosphere is too super-fancy. It feels like someone put a lot of money into the decoration and furniture without considering that they were opening a coffeeshop, not a cocktail lounge. Coffee doesn't make a ton of money and cocktails do. How will they cover their overhead? Not to mention they opened in a residential neighborhood in a town already saturated with coffeeshops. Who will see the place besides those of us right near by? And who will come *here* rather than their other favorite coffeeshops? (Don't say "you" because I probably won't come back. And don't say "that bunch of jabbering young women" because they were all friends of the barrista and they're gone now. I hope the barrista has a lot of friends b/c other than the people coming in and chatting with him, this place has been pretty dead.)

I'm predicting they tank. I could be wrong, but this just seems like a bad business move. I'll keep you updated. Now, back to my homework. This break has been brought to me/you by blogger.com and the makers of bright orange earplugs, putting the plug back in your ears. Thanks for reading.