Where Am I?!

(***Must explain: I used to live in Marin County, CA. It is one of the most expensive, if not most expensive counties in the entire nation. I was neighbors with the likes of Robert Redford and George Lucas. The women in that county have the highest rate of bulimia and alcoholism in the nation. They make themselves sick trying to be young and beautiful. I waited tables in such an atmosphere... the most demanding, self-centered, clueless to anything of the world around them type people. I say that so you'll understand my Marin comment later. And this post is dedicated to FauxTurtle, who last time I checked, still is a barista at a Marin County Starbucks).

I'm sitting in a quiet corner of Starbucks today sipping away while Momma Friend is nursing Baby Blake. She's got a big ole blanket over her so you can't even tell there's a baby under there. But it's cold enough in this Starbucks that a blanket would make sense. She's trying to blend into the fabric of the wall, in order to be modest and not offend any of the conservative Muslim women around us. The only reason she's feeding in public like this (instead of in a feeding room) is because it's a new mall and the feeding room hasn't opened.

(And before you think something cruel about us for going to a mall on a Friday--freeze in that stereotype right there! A group of us goes out to eat together every Friday after church--it's the near-closest thing I have to being in Friends and Central Perk.)

In walks two American women. How do we know they're American? Because they're so loud we can hear their accents from across the place. One of them fits my current pet peeve to a tee: oblivious to the modest culture here and dressed like a hooch. (For those of you who are offended by that word, please forgive me. It's the nicest I can think of, and it's the word I think of when I can see more of her skin than I can see on an undressed Barbie). To me, dressing in such a manner is already an annoyance when I live in the states. Here, it downright bugs me. It's like they see all the people so modestly covered and feel like they need to make up for it and show a little more. GRRR. Insensitivity all around.

The other one is a bit more modest, thankfully. But this post is not a modesty tirade. It's what the modest one DID that made us stare in wide-eyed wonder.

She ordered her drink and then asked if she could pour in her own soy milk. Momma Friend and I look at each other with the same comment in our eyes, "No, she didn't bring her own soy milk?!" Thankfully, she didn't bring her own soy milk. But she did reach across the coffee bar and take her espresso shot from the bewildered man in one hand and grab a box of soy in the other. She proceeded to pour her milk and espresso into her cup, shake the cup James Bond style, sample it, and then nod in approval. She handed the soy back over the counter and said to her friend, "It'll do."

Did they get transplanted here from Marin County? Did they not notice airplane rides and passport stamps? Did they honestly think they're still in America where stuff like passes for normal and acceptable behavior?

I turned to Momma Friend and said, "I think that's got to be one of the strangest things I've seen in this country."

She nodded and then said, "Well. Now you've got something to write about on your blog."