Coffee Grams!
One of the cafes where I regularly work--Grumpy's--is having coffee-grams for Valentine's Day. All of the regulars are getting polaroid potraits which will be then posted on a board and numbered. For $5 you can send a secret note to a fellow freelancer--er, I mean coffeedrinker--with a card valid for one coffee.

Intriguing!

I don't have any secret crushes, or if I did, I sure as hell wouldn't mention it on a public blog my husband reads. But I *do* have burning curiosity about my fellow regulars. There's one guy who keeps almost the same schedule as I do, and same cafe circuit. He sort of looks like the lead singer of Keane, has an expensive computer, and plays chess. I can't tell if he's a grad student or independently wealthy. And there are a bunch of folk who seem like they might be writers too (a lot grumpier and poorly dressed than the graphic designers), but I've never been able to figure out for sure. There are also a lot of strung out rock star types, but they tend to frequent Eat Records.

Yeah, I *could* strike up a conversation. But that would mean I would have to greet him or her each time we saw each other, and social interactions, and... You know. Talk. Brrr.

(it is telling that the other people I think might be writers, and have known by sight for almost a year and a half now, also do not strike up conversations. We will do the 'nod,' but that's it)

Anyway, I love the idea of coffeegrams. Back in high school--this is a true story--various clubs used to sell candygrams around Valentine's Day: for twenty-five cents you could send a note and a candy to someone in their homeroom. Of course the more popular you were, the more candy you got.

My best friend and I used to send each other candygrams as if they were from secret crushes, so at least we'd get one or two. Typically, she would keep track of who got what from whom, and I would keep track of the candy. And eat whatever no one wanted.

(props to green apple jolly ranchers!)