Bonhoeffer to You

The picture has nothing to do with what I am about to tell you. Waiting for my father today, I settled in a soon-to-be-open cafe for about an hour. There, I met the two owners, who kept trying to make small talk as I tried to read. It's been happening to me a lot the past two weeks, the making of small talk with friendly people who mean well, but who I really have nothing to say to because I don't know them. I find the situations incredibly frustrating because I want to reciprocate the niceness but it's always so painful grasping at things to talk about and we end up making stupid comments about the weather.

They were a young couple, the husband originally from Sweden and the wife from the area, though she had spent some time living in China. (I believe the husband's ice breaker was "so which part of China is your family from?" Not a very good start, but he turned out to be genuine and not ignorant.) When I first entered, the wife was sitting at a table with books and papers all about her, looking very studious, as one would when preparing for the LSATs or perhaps an important presentation. Turns out, she was reading The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting and Running a Coffee Bar, always a good sign a week from opening day. The place did look gorgeous, though, much classier than your usual Starbucks and bigger, too. The couple was wicked friendly. They kept offering me drinks or to get me a cookie even though I had just met them. It was very hard turning them down over and over again. And so Bonhoeffer's Cafe and Espresso, even though I find your title rather redundant, you have my endorsement.

Opening June 18th.