Tuesday, March 18, 2008

starbucks dangers

I'm at my Menlo Park office -- the Sandhill Road Starbucks -- working before a few VC meetings and then popping over to Y Combinator's demo day. This Starbucks makes a particularly good dopio espresso, so it's been a happy morning. It almost wasn't, however.

My laptop was sitting on a low table next to my chair while I finished Bill Buford's excellent book, Heat and made some phone calls. I had just gotten on the phone when a rather elderly gentleman tottered my way with a very full cup of coffee, a muffin, an unlit cigar in his mouth, before dropping heavily into a chair and setting his coffee down right next to my closed laptop, despite their being room on the table to keep some liquid-MacBook distance.

I knew what was going to happen next. I reached over and picked up my laptop, moving it back onto my lap. I had just finished when my new neighbor dropped his nearly whole muffin straight down into his cup of coffee, creating a spectacular coffee eruption that covered the table in coffee, drenched the space my laptop had occupied, and narrowly missed drenching my legs.

That would have made for a sucktastic day of meetings.

4 comments:

Adz Childs said...

Wow. That was quick thinking.

Unknown said...

I've spilled water on my desk at the "home office" more times than I can count. Put it to the right, put it to the left... put it right in front of me... it always gets knocked over eventually. The thing is, sometimes I drink tea... but then I use cups with much smaller height, so maybe that's why I've been lucky with them so far. Maybe I need a sippy cup for the office...

Mark Brown said...

Maybe Starbucks could offer a hat with a coffee strapped to each side with a sipper tube. Quality...

Unknown said...

friends don't let friends drink fourbucks. if you stopped slumming you might get less klutzich fellow caffeinators. :)