Coffee Observation
Coffee and I are lovers with a dysfunctional relationship. We break up. I move on to green tea and water. Coffee and I get back together when days and nights of raising this bundle of demonic joy leave me wrecked and exhausted. So it is that coffee and I are once again in the throes of passion.But yesterday, as I cleared four half-drunk cups from my desk, I realized something. In total, I "might" drink a cup. Maybe. Maybe 1.5 cups. My pattern is: brew pot, pour cup, add creamer, add sugar, bring to desk, inhale scent, sip, it's too hot, wait, sip maybe four sips, forget it's sitting there, sip, it's too cold.
The fact that I NOTICE that I, in fact, am NOT a coffee drinker, but someone who likes having it there, who goes through this whole exercise, who will even brew a second pot and STILL not drink it, is just . . . the ideal thing to put in a book.
In fact, that's how I go through life. Noticing people's oddities. My own oddities. I have a phobic character in my work-in-progress who can't get on an elevator. He's terrified, so he takes the stairs, even if it's a skyscraper and it's 45 stories. But he CAN go on the subway. When his new love interest asks him why, when the subway is even more claustrophobic than an elevator, he responds, "I like trains." Real people in real life invent all these rules that govern how they function in the world.
Jerry Seinfeld was the king at noticing all the oddities of humans. So was the late George Carlin. Seinfeld once said, "The reason most people play golf is to wear clothes they would not be caught dead in otherwise." I live on a golf course. I can attest to that. One of my favorite George Carlin observations was, "Why do they lock gas station bathrooms? Are they afraid someone will clean them?"
So what's some observation you've made in real life . . . that has made it into your work? Or if you're not a writer . . . Seinfeld-style, what's something you notice about people that's just plain odd?
Peace,
E
P.S. As many of you know, I have Crohn's disease, and a blog pal of mine is running a race in my honor--a half-marathon. It's creeping up soon. Here's his race site. Here's an old blog post about my life with this disease. If you can give . . . thanks. There are millions of people with this disease, and there is no cure.
Labels: quirks
posted by Erica Orloff at 7:38 AM
19 Comments:
I don't drink coffee (or hot tea, either). I just can't get past the taste. It's almost a running joke in the family. Actually, it IS a running joke in the family.
My parents were not drinkers, ie., they didn't believe in drinking alcohol.
My father repeatedly said to me about drinking coffee, "You really should learn to drink coffee, it's a social drink."
To which my wife and I often jokingly say to each other, "You really should learn to drink beer, it's a social drink."
Mark:
I love that. :-)
My parents start "happy hour" anytime after 2:00 p.m. My mother has a whistle. A real whistle. When she blows it, happy hour may commence. If it's been a bad day, they blow that thing early.
E
The only coffee I can drink is of the chicory variety down in New Orleans and I think it is as much the environment as the taste.
Travis:
I've tasted that . . . gotta say . . .
GROSS. :-)
E
I'm happy to say caffeine and nicotine are no longer parts of my life. I enjoyed them both in excess for a long time, though.
While dressing for the day, some people fall into the habit (and some are actually OCD about this) of putting their shoes and socks on in a certain order. For example: left sock/left shoe...right sock/right shoe; left sock/right sock; right shoe/left shoe...etc.
I myself try to mix it up. "They" might get me if I establish a pattern.
Personal observations that not only make it into my work, but have since become an ongoing theme, is that no matter how dark the personality, there is good within that manifests, causing the character to turn a corner, a/k/a metamorphosis.
Jude:
I rarely wear shoes. :-)
E
kath:
That's interesting . . . growth and change is always the hallmark of a novel/character, so it makes sense.
E
Something to think about. I never think to add in quirks to my characters. They either come out on their own or not. Definitely something to think about as I am writing.
Thanks for the nod about the race and the fund raising. Any little bit helps. Being on the hook for the fund raising has made made life interesting lately. I'll have to add that into a story sometime :)
ROFLMAO! Ohmigosh, isn't that the truth??? Why do they lock those awful bathrooms?
I want to hear that whistle. NOW. I need a drink, for sure--I just survived a root canal!
I can't drink coffee unless it's decaf. The caffeine makes me anxious. As to the other thing about people's oddities, if you hadn't asked me I could have given you a list. But right now I can't think of anything.
Ewoh:
If the quirks don't "come" I still think they have to be added somehow. To make characters more real.
E
Spy:
WHISTLE IS BLOWING, Dear. :-) Feel better!
E
Zoe:
My mind sometimes goes blank at the worst times, and then I panic I am having and early Alzheimer's moment.
E
I totally agree. The quirks need to be there... we all have them, and if they are not present, the characters are just not dimensional enough to make me want to care what happens to them... I use the characters form the Davinci Code as an example - my own opinion of course.
Erica, love this post. I do the same coffee routine daily. Hubby is at work, and I'm fixing a 8-cup, and I maybe drink 2. I do the pop in the micorwave to reheat too, except I forget it's in there. DUH?
And I love observation. I live in a small southern town, and there's a million glimpses I see. The baseball cap tug and pulls, the sound of flip-flops, the town officials that resemble Mayberry people. LOL. Just love it, all of it!
I drink tea and beer (though not at the same time). I must be social. If I had a character who drank tea and beer at the same time, that would be an oddity.
Here's an oddity that hasn't made it to a book but probably should. My sister used to walk really slow. Not as a child but as an adult. If you tried to hurry her, she would walk slower. I realized that walking slow was the only control she felt she had in her life.
I love the smell of coffee, but it hurts my stomach like nobodies business. I miss it.
But my oddity is that I have to have my tissue roll a certain way. I fix it in other people's house. Overall I'm not OCD, but that is something I can use a book. Also at odd times I whistle "Remember the Titans". I can't remember the tune at any other times, but it just pops up in my head.
I LOVE the idea of a whistle. :)
Jude, thank you for saying "I myself try to mix it up. "They" might get me if I establish a pattern. I am exactly the same way. I force myself not to fold my underwear as part of my constant battle against looming OCD.
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