You take your laptop to a coffee house and set up shop

Remember the good ole days?  Coffee meant coffee and there were no venti, half-caf, 140° soy orange mocha lattes with dairy-free, non-fat whip cream, and a dusting of organic nutmeg.  You’d go to a coffee shop for the coffee and to read the paper; not to hold business meetings or multitask on the phone.  You use to not care about the artwork on the walls or the latest house music hit playing on the store’s radio.  And you certainly didn’t set up shop with your laptop.

He could be working in an office, at the library, or on a desk just about anywhere else.  But where’s the show in that?  He needs to be able to walk into the place and announce his arrival by asking everyone present where the closest outlet is.  Depending on the store’s set up, this may give him an opening to begin moving around furniture or draping his power cord across multiple tables.  He takes his time milking this set up process so everyone knows that he’s marking his territory and setting up shop at that table.  And not to let the spotlight leave him just yet, he needs to ask those sitting around him if the place has free wi-fi or if they are able to pick up a signal from the apartments upstairs.

So what exactly is he up to?  Probably not surfing the internet or checking his email because he already has a smart phone for that.  Perhaps shopping online, but that is unlikely because he doesn’t have much cash after spending ten dollars on coffee drinks every time he shows up with his lap top.  Maybe he’s a very important businessman conducting very important business.  Or maybe he’s taking some time off to find himself and write the great American novel.  As Stewie Griffin so aptly put it, “How you uh, how you comin’ on that novel you’re working on?  Huh?  Gotta a big, uh, big stack of papers there?  Gotta, gotta nice litte story you’re working on there?  Your big novel you’ve been working on for three years?  Huh?  Gotta, gotta compelling protagonist?  Yeah?  Gotta obstacle for him to overcome?  Huh?  Gotta story brewing there?  Working on, working on that for quite some time?  Huh?  Yea, talking about that that years ago.  Been working on that the whole time?  Nice little narrative?  Beginning, middle, and end?  Some friends become enemies, some enemies become friends?  At the end your main character is richer from the experience?  Yeah?  Yeah?  No, no, you deserve some time off.”

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