My name is Brad. I am a writer, I am awkward in social situations, and I spend a lot of time in coffee shops trying to escape all of the terribly distracting things I find at home (video games, movies, tv, cats, comics, vitamin water, robots, etc.). I rotate amongst local coffee shops throughout the week so that no single location becomes too familiar with my presence. Spending any appreciable amount of time in one place is bound to make you privy to the occasional odd situation, but I have come to believe that coffee shops are breeding grounds for weird. The following is my account of the wonderfully weird and horribly awkward situations I have encountered.

Staring Contest.

I’ve been branching out to new Starbucks lately (for a few reasons).  Yesterday I decided to join my friend Derek at the Crystal Cove Promenade Starbucks off of PCH.  Upon arrival, it was immediately clear that this was going to be an interesting Starbucks.

Two police officers were inside talking to a shaggy Charles Manson-looking fellow.  Despite his appearance, he was acting quite calm, answering all of the officers questions about where he lived and such (apparently a nearby condo).  The conversation then ended like this…

Officer 1: Well, we’ve just been getting some complaints about a man matching your description.
Officer 2: Now you don’t seem to be bothering anyone here, but just stay away from the lady stores.
Charlie: Okay.

Charlie then proceeded to sit in his seat, staring directly at Derek and myself.  Derek then informed me (through digital means) that Charlie had been trying to make aggressive eye contact with him before I had arrived.

The entire time we sat there, Charlie faced us.  He left a few times, for up to 15 minutes at a time, but always returned.  He mumbled to himself for a while, read a paper once, asked a lady about her children, but mostly just sat in silence, staring at us for about two hours.

I am pretty sure that this was the man the police had been looking for.

I wanted to blog about this while it happened, but Charlie was staring right at my computer screen.

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1 Comment so far

1. BenCox December 6, 2008 6:01 pm

   A. I like that you befriended Charles-Manson look-a-like so well that you can refer to him as Charlie.

   B. You made a Derek shoutout.