The last day of January

I woke naturally around seven today, earlier than I have for a while, and practiced spoken Japanese. I reached the shopping area before the stores opened. After wandering in the drizzle, I took the metro to a new Starbucks concept store in Guangzhou. Coffee at least gave me somewhere to go.

The journey took a little over half an hour. By the time I arrived before eleven, the shop was packed, but I found an empty table. I bought an Americano and bread for lunch so I could use a long block of time for work. It was not enough to fill me, but I was absorbed in something more important to me. For nearly three hours, I worked undisturbed.

Then a staff member asked me to move my bag because someone needed the seat. I was uploading content to my blog and moved it without thinking, though I wondered why they could not use a nearby place. More people arrived, and the noise sent me to my headphones. About half an hour later, after I had thrown away my cup, another staff member asked whether I had ordered anything. I showed what was left of the pastry and coffee, and they dropped the question apologetically.

I was already struggling with a bug in my site upload, and the interruptions pulled me out of the work. Once I fixed the bug, the noise seemed overwhelming. To me it felt unfair that I, sitting quietly, had been singled out while the commotion went unchecked. Did finishing a coffee mean I was expected to leave immediately so the table could be turned over?

I was angrier than I have been in years and too upset to keep sitting there. I packed up, asked how to lodge a complaint, and headed home. A staff member asked what had happened. I tried to explain, shaking with anger and almost choking up.