Interesting People

In my travels around town I run across the most interesting people. This time at the Starbucks down at San Pedro and Cypress. There is the local bum that daily comes into the place, looking like he has spent the night in the most trashed out dumpster he could find. Then, following right after him is the business man on his way to his next sales appointment.

I Love My Job!

Of course, there is me, the guy in the corner sitting before a Panasonic ToughBook computer and wearing half dirty denims, a tee shirt and tennis shoes that are scuffed and stained from the mornings’ opportunity photos taken of the graffiti- marked trains sitting on a siding up on the north side of town.


There are others in the store, too. The mother and daughter sitting across the way, apparently working on some sort of school application. The nursing student to my right, studying furiously, as if some patient’s life depends on it - all while listening to tunes on her smartphone.


At the long rough-hewn table where I am sitting, a spot across opens up, and a young woman takes the seat to begin her morning activities. A student, I presume, yet she comes in with more of a purpose than I generally find in the students that I am used to seeing in the store.


After a while, I see that she has pulled out an iPad , followed by a keyboard. Intrigued, I wait for an appropriate time and ask about that keyboard - especially if it is wireless. No - I ask not because I want to hit on her, but because I want to know how far things have come in the technology department - and to learn about what different people are up to. (Well, maybe a little bit is also motivated by the fact that Apple stock has gone crazy in the past several years and this iPad thing may be a reason for that.)


Turns out that the keyboard is indeed wireless, and that her iPad has an internal chip that connects it to ATT wiifi for about $15/month for internet access most everywhere!!!. Thus ensues a discussion about all the communication and connectivity technology that is available nowadays. My tablemate showed me for example, all of the apps that she can get on her iPad, and in particular, showed me her book app, which she says is a real money saver because she can get her textbooks in electronic format for about ½ the price of a hard copy. We both agreed that hard copy books were what we liked to read, BUT, as she stated to me, the convenience of having electronic books and magazines delivered direct to the iPad made not being able to read real books more palatable.


I asked if she was a student, and she replied yes. She said that she already had her psychology degree and was doing additional work to become a funeral director. This, then, led to some more discussion about that particular field and the perceptions of some toward it. In this regard, she told me that one woman told her that "Girls can’t be funeral directors,"while another was concerned that she was "too young (25) to be a funeral director." Go figure.


As I said, I meet the most interesting people in my travels around town.