Like Tea for Marshmallows

Here I am at the Tea Lounge. Now, if you're a tea lounge enthusiast, more power to you. But I stopped coming after I unwisely stepped in during the daytime when it was overrun with babys, baby carriages, and pregnant women communally giving birth. There were more dirty diapers than people and foul water was oozing copiously from a clogged toilet and seeping into the old couches, as if the fabric had room for more stains. And though the stench was so rich it was on line for tea, people were still there, business as usual, their olfactory glands having committed suicide within the first five minutes. I haven't been back since.

Yet here I am. Because the Cocoa Bar, so conveniently located, stops serving lappies after 8pm. Park Slope used to be so...you know, cool. The laptop freelancers could take a break from their apartments and head for a nice bistro for some tea, an enormously priced muffin, and free wifi--and crank out some cartoons or make a few millions e-trading. Our only enemy was the horde of baby factories. Now the Tea Lounge is our last fortification. Nice is no longer nice to lappies. Sweet Melissa's tables are too fragile and lace covered to hold a 2 lb lappy. Hancos is awesome but closes early. And tonight I walked into the Cocoa Bar wondering why it wasn't thronged with people (no, just one baby factory) and was pointed to the sign. So what could I do but return a ruby encrusted muffin and head to this stinkpot.

Oh, if only I checked the forums. Apparently there is quite a stink about laptops in coffee shops. Excising the leet speak and charming vulgarity, the argument seems to be that people pay $2 for coffee then sit down for 8 hours hogging a seat and ruining small businesses. Which I suppose would make sense if the posts weren't written by people who aren't even small business owners, just the usual modern day internet hydrocephiles. I'd say fine, then charge for wifi. People doing serious work like writing or animation don't depend on it, and we won't waste time messing on the internet. Or put a minimum on lappy users (try getting a seat at a nice restaurant and ordering a saltine.) Cocoa Bar, try selling something other than cocoa and $3 biscotti. But putting coffee over people isn't fair. Especially if it's really hot coffee. We can't get rid of the baby factories (even where there's a bar--right, tea lounge?) why pick on lappies just because we have a smaller lobby and less screaming mouths? I used to go to Nice to get some animation done over a meal while waiting for laundry. Now they lost a regular customer--nice going! Ok, I better quit while I'm ahead--sorry for the autobiographical blog