8 Hours in a Dunkin
I just sat in Dunkin Donuts for the last 8 hours (ok, maybe 7.5). It gives me an odd feeling, sitting in that chair for so long. And yet it didn’t seem like a long time at all. It could have been 2 hours for all I knew.
I got there at about 7 this morning. I had come from the early morning prayer meeting at my church (conveniently just down the road), and dropped by Dunkin as has become my habit of late. I don’t go there for the caffeine—I go there because I like to sit in a quiet, peaceful environment and do my work (it’s an added bonus that I have a top-notch view of the main runway of the airport just across the road).
I’ve made it my habit on Tuesdays to go to prayer meeting, then sit in Dunkin for an hour or so, and then chat with my dad while he’s on his commute. It’s a very pleasant routine. Today, he forgot to call me when he got in the car, so we ended up talking after he got to work. He runs a small boutique shop, and on our call he described his desire for a “pop-up” online store for one-time events.
I take practically any issue or desire that people have regarding technology as a challenge, so I immediately began brainstorming how I could make one for him. He didn’t ask me to, but after we got off the call, I immediately began working on building something.
I started by describing the project in detail to GPT5, but it was decidedly unhelpful, and gave me almost nothing of value in return. I’ve come to appreciate the value of an AI bot in certain circumstances. They’re occasionally helpful in brainstorming, and they are often very helpful in writing personal, one-off websites for filling very specific needs. I sometimes use them instead of Google, and I always feel a bit less human when I do. But this time, it kinda let me down.
Anyway, I proceeded to spend the next 5ish hours working on this project. I didn’t have much else planned for today, so this was a pretty perfect time sink. In the meantime, I got to watch people come and go. There was a professional-sounding woman who sat for a couple hours at a table adjacent to mine and kept making phone calls. I think she worked for some sort of legal charity, helping people deal with CPS, perhaps? She seemed like a nice person, though she definitely was wearing her “professional persona”.
A group of elderly people came in on a bus. I assume they were from some sort of elder care/nursing home, as I’ve seen them there every Tuesday that I’ve been at DD. The bus isn’t marked, though.
A younger girl, probably my age, came in at one point and sat down 10 or 15 feet in front of me. She had only bought a Sprite, and was busy writing in a moleskin-style notebook. She was wearing a leather vest, and her hair was cropped short and a little rough. I didn’t watch her—I’m not rude—but whenever I looked up and saw her, I felt a little tug that I should go talk to her. I don’t know why. Maybe I thought she looked lonely. Maybe I was drawn in by her writing in a notebook. Maybe I thought she looked cute. But I didn’t say hi. I sorta wish I had.
Well, now it’s 3pm. I should really be going about my day, but I’m a bit lost. I think ever since I misplaced my notebook that has my calendar/day planner in it, I’ve felt very disorganized. Surely there are productive ways I could be spending this free day, but I just can’t think straight. Also, maybe 8 hours in a Dunkin makes your mind go a little screwy.