grande irish cream latte. i'm reading this book about starbucks, how it came to be, what its vision is, what its trying to accomplish. and one of the things that the ceo talks about is the creation of starbucks as a "third place." the third place is an idea put forth by a certain mister ray oldenburg and he uses the term to describe an "informal public gathering place, the idea being that our first place is our home, our second is work, and our third is a community hangout where conversation, relaxation, and social engagement thrive, and expectations are left at the door." what a great idea this third place.



i was wondering what the first two places might be before i looked it all up. in my peculiar ingenuity i figured the first place was the home but in my peculiar stupidity i thought that the second place might be eateries and restaurants. and so i thought that the third place would be defined as someplace casual and inviting and open to social interaction without the pressure of "doing something" or constantly buying. that's what i figured a third place was. apparently i was a little bit off. but no matter, i can adjust to this new definition.



actually no.



i feel very powerful. i just drank milk. so let's boldy go ahead and redefine the term. a "place" should be somewhere that you can hang out. the second place should not be work. nobody wants to go hang out at work. and if work is "hanging out" then i want your job. people at work are not hanging out. "places" are spots for people to go and hang out. nobody says "let's go to my office and we'll kick it there." doesn't happen. so for now the first place is home, the second place is a restaurant (or similar place where an activity is expected and a certain time constraint placed upon said activity), and the third place is somewhere you could go to hang out and conceivably remain forever. so say coffee shops, cafes, boba joints, bars, et cetera. all these "places" must be conducive to conversation too. so clubs and karaoke and to a certain extent, pool halls, are out.



so moving right along. one of the major problems i had with new york was that i didn't feel like i had enough third places. not that there weren't alot of third places in new york but i don't really like bars and one can only drink so much boba or coffee. i like getting boba/coffee/jamba juice and then moving along elsewhere to hang out. preferably outside. new york, or should i specify manhattan, doesn't always give you that luxury. and with small living spaces and expensive restaurants, manhattan was lacking in chill out areas, especially during the winter. my favorite third places usually ended up being a bookstore or mcdonalds (sundaes and fruit parfaits are not only delicious but admirably affordable). but bookstores aren't really a third place and mdonalds is technically a restaurant so thus categorized as a second place. the dilemma then, where to hang out -- on the cheap and for a long time -- in manhattan?



here in san diego, i feel like i have lots of third places. there's the beach, there's the parking lot, there's the car, there's parks, there's swing sets, there's the beach. and of course, there is the greatest of all third places, fumari's. but that may be just a personal bias. don't smoke kids, it's bad for you. only you can prevent lung cancer. actually maybe it's just the types of third places that i enjoy better out here. if i liked bars i would probably really love new york. but i don't. and so i won't.



i had a point here somewhere. a tangent into ann arbor and finding little private third places and all this other stuff. and what a late night diner might be categorized as. but it's all pretty boring. then again if you've read this far you're probably already pretty bored. i hate when people do that. never ever do that. we'e read this far. okay. we're either really bored or very smitten. no more okay? whoop whoop, beep beep, we've read this far shakespeare, get over it. anyway, ranting aside. here is what i have decided. ubiquity is not evil. evil is evil.