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Crazy Cafegoers

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looking on

When I was living in L.A., I used to do a lot of work at a cafe near my apartment. It was connected to a laundromat which I always found amazingly convenient, and it had cozy tables and artwork by local artists for sale on the walls. Along one side of the cafe was a row of outward-facing computers that people could use to browse the Internet. I liked to sit next to them at the tables in the back where I could hunker down and concentrate peep at what people were looking at. Mostly, people used them to check their email or chat with friends, but one time a woman (who looked just like anyone else in the room) sat down and started looking at…

Porn!

I couldn’t help but be in awe. Unlike how most people act when they’re doing things they know they shouldn’t be doing—quick and shifty-eyed—she remained so composed. The way she slowly scrolled through each image, you’d almost think she was looking at pictures from a birthday party she’d just been to. After a good 30 minutes or so, she got up, pushed her chair in, fixed her hair, and left. And the other amazing thing was that the whole time she was sitting there, no one said anything or tried to stop her.

I always worry that I’m going to be busted whenever I do anything that’s even remotely wrong so it’s funny to me when people have no shame in doing totally crazy things and get away with it.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever seen at a cafe? 


(image by Eva Buechler)

Last modified: January 10, 2019