Squawker McSquawkerson

this afternoon, i have made the long-awaited journey to the lovely (if not uppity) Westboro, where chain stores are much harder to come by, every parent (and their dog -- literally! ok...not literally) has their baby in a super-chic three-wheeling sporto-stroller, and even the St. Vincent de Paul sells antiques. (note to self: don’t miss snagging that $199 solid-wood dresser.)

the reason i’ve been meaning to venture out here is -- *drum roll* -- to discover some new coffee shops to work in. or at least to see something new when glancing out the window of familiar locales such as the bridgehead, where i am right now (with Arcade Fire featured in the background).

the food here is tops: chocolate-pecan squares and lemon bars and brownies – oh, my! sadly, however, the hot chocolate tends to be subpar. as in, bo-ring, dull, devoid of character, a total snore. by some stroke of luck, today’s is better than usual: a 7 out of 10, say. (the chocolate-syrup-swirl design helped.) this can only be a good omen! and indeed, a slew of “dates” have cropped up already.

first: the Latin Ladies. only caught the tail end of their get-together, but i immediately took to them – no doubt because they were involved in two of my favourite activities: speaking french and speaking spanish. (oh, boy. nerd alert!) the bubbly québécoise woman was practicing her spanish (¡excelente!) with the sweet hispanic-canadian woman who gently corrected mademoiselle here and there. this just in: they meet here again next week. perhaps i’ll just “happen” by and smilingly nudge my way into their conversation – a linguistic ménage à trois, no? ¡claro que sí!

cita número dos: the McSquawkersons. oy vey! you know these two already. one guy, one girl, one totally platonic friendship (between girl and guy), and two intense romances (as in, the ones each egomaniac is having with his- or herself). everything oozing from them is on a twofold mission: 1) to make sure everyone in the café can hear them –*squawk* “so how ARE you?!” *squaaaawk* (together, they could fuel the economy for at least a few new hearing-aid companies) – , and 2) to make sure everyone in the café understands that these are, without a doubt, the two coolest and “craziest” people in the world. ever. (“no, you don’t even know – sometimes i just get so crazy!” *squawk*). sigh. the bridgehead is particularly prone to hosting such characters…

and last but certainly not least: (incidental) date number three. it was the perfect scene. when I look up from my work, he’s already looking at me from across the way, through the window of the entrance. he smiles shyly. my heart skips a beat. it takes him only a few moments to move over to my side of the coffee shop. he has this sweet blond hair and a cherubic face. and, though not too bold, he’s not nearly as awkward or timid as i’d expected a 5-year-old to be! he says hello to me, puts the café’s toy back in the toybox on the ground, and then, after asking me to help him un-catch the pieces of grass (you know, the ones he’d found outside and decided to save) from under the toy, he does a couple of dance moves, smiles sweetly at me again, and takes off with his dad and two sisters. to paraphrase what my friend Rebecca has recently said about her 5-year-old son, i'm now aching to go back to kindergarten just so that i can have a crush on that little boy!

and now back to translating...