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the one where I had an existential crisis with my coffee

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Traffic was horrendous today.  It took me an hour and a half to get to work.  It should take about thirty minutes.

To add insult to injury, I didn't have any coffee.  I had water, because I foolishly thought I'd "had enough coffee."  However, I had not had enough coffee for a 90 minute commute.

I stopped at one of my favorite local coffee shops, Thunderbird Coffee.  They're really cool there.  And they know it, but not in that annoying way.

Vintage light fixtures, mismatched chairs, good coffee...
You get the idea.
I was chatting with the baristas when a man came in, very sweaty from what I believe to be a recent run, to get his coffee.  He was clearly a regular and clearly very invigorated by his recent exercise.  He was chatty.

As I said something to the guy making my latte, he turned to me directly and said:

"Are you a hipster?"

Not even intentionally, this image is from an online article about AUSTIN HIPSTERS.  Sigh.


Oh, Lord.

It didn't take me long to answer, but time did slow down a little bit as I stood there and had an existential life crisis.  

Clearly, I am not a hipster.  I am a 37 year old lawyer who's in the Junior League.  Seriously, people.  

On the other hand, I like to thrift and find new music and eat weird things and generally keep it real.  And we compost.  So, you know, not all hope is lost.  AND, I have Warby Parkers.  Phew.  A sliver of redemption.

But, yeah, no.  I'm not.  My days of smoking Gauloises and wearing Doc Martens are over.  I don't even live in South Austin anymore.  And I am not going to tattoo a bird or an arrow on any part of my body.

And so, when time sped back up after I'd candidly assessed my life in order to respond to Ye Olde Sweaty Chatty Man, I simply said this:

"No.  I used to be one.  But now I live in Steiner Ranch, so I can't be one anymore."

He smiled.  The baristas groaned and chuckled.  The legit hipsters agreed with me.  I was an acceptable, honest and humorous, non-hipster.

(Note:  For non-Austinites, Steiner Ranch is a very tony suburb of Austin that I like to refer to as "gracious lakeside living."  Side note:  I actually love living there.)

So, there's that.

Hope your day involves some refreshing self-assessment.

Talk soon,
Heather

8 comments:

  1. I just snort laughed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can't say how much I love this. I constantly ask myself how I turned so Austin. And I live in the burbs too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ha, from the pictures above I just realized that two of my coworkers are hipsters. Thanks for the visual. Apparently I need that to determine true hipsterdom.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I can't believe someone would actually ask you out loud if you were a hipster!! That's like "Hey, are you a geek?" or "Are you a southern belle?"

    And I have no idea what Warby Parkers are. Clearly I'm just a preppy Yankee. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. My favorite part is that you refer to Steiner as "a very tony suburb of Austin." Clearly not language a hipster would use.

    ReplyDelete

Thursday, August 22, 2013

the one where I had an existential crisis with my coffee

Traffic was horrendous today.  It took me an hour and a half to get to work.  It should take about thirty minutes.

To add insult to injury, I didn't have any coffee.  I had water, because I foolishly thought I'd "had enough coffee."  However, I had not had enough coffee for a 90 minute commute.

I stopped at one of my favorite local coffee shops, Thunderbird Coffee.  They're really cool there.  And they know it, but not in that annoying way.

Vintage light fixtures, mismatched chairs, good coffee...
You get the idea.
I was chatting with the baristas when a man came in, very sweaty from what I believe to be a recent run, to get his coffee.  He was clearly a regular and clearly very invigorated by his recent exercise.  He was chatty.

As I said something to the guy making my latte, he turned to me directly and said:

"Are you a hipster?"

Not even intentionally, this image is from an online article about AUSTIN HIPSTERS.  Sigh.


Oh, Lord.

It didn't take me long to answer, but time did slow down a little bit as I stood there and had an existential life crisis.  

Clearly, I am not a hipster.  I am a 37 year old lawyer who's in the Junior League.  Seriously, people.  

On the other hand, I like to thrift and find new music and eat weird things and generally keep it real.  And we compost.  So, you know, not all hope is lost.  AND, I have Warby Parkers.  Phew.  A sliver of redemption.

But, yeah, no.  I'm not.  My days of smoking Gauloises and wearing Doc Martens are over.  I don't even live in South Austin anymore.  And I am not going to tattoo a bird or an arrow on any part of my body.

And so, when time sped back up after I'd candidly assessed my life in order to respond to Ye Olde Sweaty Chatty Man, I simply said this:

"No.  I used to be one.  But now I live in Steiner Ranch, so I can't be one anymore."

He smiled.  The baristas groaned and chuckled.  The legit hipsters agreed with me.  I was an acceptable, honest and humorous, non-hipster.

(Note:  For non-Austinites, Steiner Ranch is a very tony suburb of Austin that I like to refer to as "gracious lakeside living."  Side note:  I actually love living there.)

So, there's that.

Hope your day involves some refreshing self-assessment.

Talk soon,
Heather

 
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