Carmen, at Metro, making coffee as her second set of parents make a surprise visit; a sip of Americano on the wild side

Yesterday, I did not go through the drive through at Meto as usual but went in and ordered over the counter. Carmen was running the shop all alone. Elizabeth would normally have been here at this time, but she just got married and so she had other things to do.

No one else was available to stand in for her, so Carmen did it all herself. It all appeared to me to be going fine. Carmen is pretty darn good at what she does.

As for me, I forgot the little pocket camera Zun Lee gave me and so, once again, just as when I was in the hospital and throughout my time of convalesance, I fell back on my iPhone. I actually love the iPhone camera, even though it won't shoot any faster than 1/20th of a second inside Metro Cafe on a sunny day and so you take a picture knowing in advance that part of the story it will tell is that life is all a blur.

Come the onrushing winter, with no ambient light leaking through the windows, I wonder what kind of shutter speed I will get inside Metro with my iPhone? Half a second?

If so, the world will grow even more blurry.

I wonder if the iPhone just released yesterday has  a faster camera?

As I was waiting for my turn, two people walked in - a man and woman. Carmen just exploded in joy. So did they. As it turned out, when Carmen reached her late teens or early 20's - I am a little confused here - she decided it was time to experience the world without the comfort of her parents' house to come home to every night.

So she moved in with this couple for a few years and experienced the world with the comfort of their house to come home to every night. 

Carmen calls Kathy and Leonard her "second parents." Here she is, with her second parents and with long-time Metro regular Nola, having a serious discussion about the past. "Seriously," Carmen says. "I lived with Cathy and Leonard forever."

I wondered if maybe she was a bit wild in the latter days of her youth, but Leonard said no, she was well behaved, a pleasure to have around.

Of course, I did not mean wild in a bad way. I meant wild in a fun, mischievous, warm way - because in this way, Carmen is a bit wild right now. The warm, fun, wildness Carmen brings to Metro makes it a place with great appeal to so many in a way no other coffee shop I know of does - even good Mormon women who do not drink coffee at all come in on a regular basis, because of the touch of wild warmth Carmen brings to her shop.

Comments

[twain12]

i would love to visit her coffee shop.