What Are You Doing Today?

Of late, on visits to my beloved Starbucks, I have encountered a question which I find mildly invasive. It begins when I walk up to the counter and stare up at the big board, pretending I don’t know what I’m going to order. After a few moments of supposed hesitation I rattle off a drink in perfect coffee ordering fashion. Now the awkward part, I hand my card to the cashier, and then we both wait for the transaction to process. It is this 3 or 4 seconds that I fear. Inevitably the cashier will feel obliged to engage me in small talk. I can understand this, it’s good customer service. What I dread are the probing questions. The question I dislike most? “What are you doing today?” or “What do you have going on today?” Now some people may have no problem with this question and happily tell the cashier about their ongoing divorce proceedings, debilitating medical conditions, or worst yet, their boring job. I am not one of those people. I have no problem broadcasting on Twitter or Facebook what I happen to be doing at the moment, but I have a very hard time telling a live stranger what I have planned for the day. I usually end up muttering something unintelligibly, and leaving as quickly as possible. I have also been known to take an easy out by saying something like “oh you know…” or “just the usual”. The truth is, I am almost always caught off guard by the question. What am I doing today? What should I be doing today? What do I want to do today? To boil my day down into one item which I can then tell a complete stranger is mission impossible. My recommendation to Starbucks? Tell your employees to talk about the weather. The weather is obvious. My plans for the day? Not so obvious.