One
Your eyes feel heavy

Two
You feel a little dizziness taking over

Three
You fear that you need a little rest and wonder if maybe checking this page wasn't such a good idea

Four
You're too tired you can't even surf off to a different URL

Five
You're too tired you can't take your eyes off the page and decide to keep on reading and see where this is going

Six
Your eyes are getting even heavier than they were

Seven
You close your eyes

Eight
You become fully aware of your other senses

Nine
You open the door to your mind.

Ten
You walk into a café…

You decide to take a seat. You look for the one closest to the windows, yet one where you can stay invisible from people at the counter. You wouldn't want to have people stand there and stare at you while they're waiting in line to order. You fail to find that perfect seating and decide to suck it up and sit on a couch by the far east side of the coffee shop. As far from the door as possible. You sit down, throw your coat over the couch next to you, managing to block any attempts for anyone to sit anywhere near you.

When it's coffee time, nobody wants company, at least when you're hypnotized.

You want your surrounding aura to remain clear of irrational narrow minded activity.

The waitress!! In this world we've created a 'waitress' is defined as a form of an intruding force that tries to break into your silence and wait for you to use your first of your remaining senses.

She walks in quick steps that make you feel her coming. She wants you to make up your mind on what you're ordering before she gets there. She wants you to know that she's busy and that if you haven't really made up your mind yet, then there's a strong chance that she's gonna walk away and never come back.

She stops and stands still next to your table giving you a strong look of anticipation. It's now or never my friend so get to work.

At that point, you don't really wanna waste the ability to speak just to make one lousy order, so you decide to play with the woven cloth placed on the back of the chair… pretending like you're actually doing something important. That's when you look up at her and see that look again. It hasn't really changed. The waitress wasn't really affected by your time killing. The same look of anticipation prevails. That's when you realize that you're not really special.

You look up again and say,

'Can I have a menu, please?'

Simple and quiet.

Say that and see the look change from anticipation to total ridicule. Like your question humiliates you. A look that tells you how there aren't that many options for you to choose from really. Deep inside, however, we all think we're special. We all think we deserve the right to choose.

The waitress, who now will probably spit in whatever it is you're going to order, walks away in absolute rage. She comes back in quicker steps this time and places the menu in fast-edit mode on the table, stands there for a sec, assuming you've made up your mind that fast, then walks away.

You pick up the menu, using the second of your remaining senses.

When you're in a coffee place, there are many items you can choose from. You don't just sit there. ORDER SOMETHING. There's café latte, pure Turkish coffee, Viennese, Jamaican, French aka Liberty, American, Columbian, classical blend, Kenyan, Espresso, Cappuccino, and the rest of the decaffeinated shit that makes no point in ordering. There's also the rival of the café life, TEA. You can choose regular, wild strawberry, mixed fruit, any fruit really, rose hip, mint… flavors that can blow your mind. The bottom-line is, when you're at a coffee shop you don't just sit there.

Now… it's decision time. Before ordering now you have to know the history of all the items mentioned in the menu. You start to wonder whether or not the flavor has been altered by newer and newer generations. We are special and we want originality.

If tea's Lipton and coffee's Nestle, then there's nothing really to talk about, is there? Where did all the pure shit go?!

You start to wonder that maybe coming to the coffee shop wasn't the best thing to do, but then again since this is a one session therapy then you're definitely going to have to think of something before I snap my fingers and send you off.

You read down the menu, then you dream on to some library and start reading all sorts of books about each and every item there is to choose from; their discovery, their invention, their diversification. EVOLUTION!!

When you sit at a coffee shop… you have to order something.

You keep reading about the evolution of tea. How, according to Chinese mythology, in 2737 BC the Chinese Emperor, Shen Nung, scholar and herbalist, was sitting beneath a tree while his servant boiled drinking water. That's when a leaf from the tree dropped into the water and Shen Nung decided to try the brew. The tree was a wild tea tree. There are many authentic and supposed references to tea in the centuries before Christ, according to the Chinese dictionary dated circa 350 AD. The Chinese t'u was often used to describe shrubs other than tea, hence the confusion when Confucius allegedly referred to tea or t'u when writing about the "sow thistle" plant in the Book of Odes.

You read how, from the earliest times, tea was renowned for its properties as a healthy, refreshing drink. By the third century AD many stories were being told and some written about tea and the benefits of tea drinking, but it was not until the Tang Dynasty (618 AD - 906 AD) that tea became China's national drink and the word ch'a was used to describe tea.

The spread of cultivation throughout China and Japan is largely accredited to the movement of Buddhist priests throughout the region. Now tea is basically ice and is accredited to Lipton in all its grace.

You start to think that if it has to do with the sanctuary of Buddhist priests, then it deserves to be given a shot.

You call back the waitress, and place the order. At that point, she's happy you're going to drink the damn thing and leave.

Then comes your drink. You can see it floating in the room until it carefully lands on your table… waiting to be consumed. That's when you remember how the waitress hates your guts and decide to take a whiff at the drink, hoping that it won't cause the same guts she's hated to burst open and demand expensive surgery. Your senses are getting narrowed down.

Smells like tea. But then again, when you're subconscious, puss can smell like roses. You decide to taste. There's nothing really left to lose. You can always leave and abandon this coffee place for life and stick to your old lifestyle. You drink. You survive. But you hate the taste. You didn't feel connected to Christ or Buddha. It all felt the same. Just some hot water and a leaf that accidentally fell off some shrub.

Tea wasn't the way to go. Maybe it's the evolution into the commercially approved Lipton that didn't fit. Either way, you decide to give something else a try. Your time is running out. Sand from an hour glass begins to drop from the ceiling. It's piling up. You feel violated. You feel out of control. You feel buried under the earthly matter that is the sand from the hourglass.

You look down the menu again and wonder if coffee is the way to go. You call back the waitress, but she doesn't return. You keep yelling and demanding another chance. That you've made the wrong choice. Alas, it's too late. The sand is running out. It's piling up. It's filling everything up. You realize that having a menu doesn't mean that you have the right to choose. It only means that there are options, only all of them are only there to delude you. The coffee place people prepared that menu. "They" don't want us to know. We realize that… we're not really that special!!

You swim your body through the sand and towards the door that we've chosen to keep as far away as possible when we first got here. You've made a mistake. You decide to look up the books piled up in the library again attempting to justify your mistake. Someone who had some book about tea published LIED to you.

The magic of self-delusion.

The thing is… Your library card has expired. You're out of time.

Ten
You're swimming through the sand

Nine
You manage to get your head through

Eight
You breathe the air. The fresh, clean air.

Seven
You feel your eyes. They're still shut. Don't open them now or else the sand may cut through. Your arms are now on board.

Six
You're sweating. Thinking about your life and how you fucked it all up.

Five
Coffee might have tasted better. You regret your sins. You seek redemption.

Four
You swim through the sand and you step out of the earth.

Three
You're afloat now. You're still alive. You made it.

Two
You see the light

One *snap*

You hear the snap. You've just used up the last of your senses.

Thank you for checking in. Oh and in case you were wondering. We weren't really discussing coffee.

Posted by Яαgιи Яαvєи on Sunday, May 21, 2006 at 5/21/2006 09:15:00 PM | Permalink