People-watching at Cafe Sureia

People-watching in a cafe has to be one of the best indulgences on earth.

Step 1: Go to a cafe, preferably one you've never been to before. Think of yourself as an anthropologist on a mission.

Step 2: Order the beverage of your choice. (Today I chose a mango smoothie. I watched sadly as the barista made it from "Mango Smoothie Mix" or somesuch. Oh well, I'm not in the tropics, what was I expecting.)

Step 3: Find a comfortable spot, and commence observation.

Currently, I spy:

• An overly serious man next to me on the couch who looks very busy but is actually just surfing the web
  
  
• 2 men at a table near the door playing chess. One man is African American with a goatee in an airy purple shirt and khaki linen pants. The other is white with a trucker hat, enormous sunglasses, and a black tshirt tucked into khaki pants with a cell phone holder clipped to his belt, and Teva sandals. He just stepped closer to me and has some really gnarly toenails.
  
  
• 2 young women sitting next to me gossiping madly. Both have very sunny dispositions. When I noted a roach on the wall behind them, they did not seem to care it was there. (Aha: nature lovers!)
  
  
• Dude with headphones on his laptop by the window. Big puffy wavy dark hair. Has not looked up from laptop since I walked in.
  
  
• A man and woman - he in a suit, she in a tshirt and dress pants - engaged in passionate conversation about what seems to be a business plan or other project they're collaborating on. Hmm, sounds like they're planning a school....
  

You know how when you're depressed, people say, "you should volunteer, it gets you out of your own head to help other people"? Same thing with spying on people (because, let's face it, that's what I'm doing). You notice all the details of the way they present themselves, the way they interact with others, how they contrast with the people around them to tell the story of the place you're in together at this very moment.

I highly recommend it.