Coffee shop vs. McDonald's

On Wednesday I went to a coffee shop to work, and no one said a word to me (and vice versa).

On Thursday I went to a McDonald’s to work. The difference was like night and day.

11:10 am: An older black man cheerfully walks up to me. “That’s great! That’s so small!” he says, pointing to the netbook the family gave me for Christmas (apparently embarrassed that my last laptop was so old the ‘A’ key had fallen off. “It reflects badly on us!” my brother said).

The man: “That must really help you students!”

“Thanks!” I say. “It doesn’t do much, but I only use it for Internet and Word anyway, so it’s perfect!”

11:50 am: I'm sitting at the table closest to the door. The door opens and a large black man is suddenly sitting across from me at my table. He whispers something incomprehensible. "What!?" I say, surprised at how quickly he appeared. "Would you buy me a delicious hamburger please?" "No," I say, still in shock. He says immediately, "Why not?" Me: "Why? Because I don't want to... And I think it's kinda weird that you just walked in and sat at my table like that.” He stays put for a few more seconds, staring at me as I turn my eyes back to my computer. He mumbles in an annoyed way, then gets up and as he walks by me, says, "I'm not Asian." I hear him moving onto the next person.

A few minutes later he passes me again on the way out the door and calls out, "I got one, dog." Indeed, he appears to be carrying a McDonald’s bag. I look at him and say haltingly, "I'm...glad."

12:04 pm: A white lady in her late 40s or early 50s comes up and wants to know what brand of netbook I have. “ASUS,” she says, reading the label. “Do you like it?” I say that I do. “Did you do a lot of research before buying it?” No, but my brother did and he says he got a good one. She says, “I’m thinking of buying one soon for my trip to Israel.” I say that’s really neat and tell her that if I go traveling I’m definitely taking my netbook with me. She leaves, muttering ASUS a couple of times so she remembers the brand.

1:10 pm: A white man of senior citizen age walks by, moving his arms like he’s doing a very slow power walk. “Good afternoon, junior finger exerciser! I'm a senior exerciser! Walk-walk-walk, and sometimes talk-talk-talk! Enjoy!” I wave and he power walks off.