Monday, November 16th, 2020

Our office runs on coffee and cookies. Right after I sit down this morning, my direct boss puts two cookies on my desk. As I head out, the big boss is also handing out cookies. I decline, but he insists. When I take one, he says that I should take more, “to eat on the road.” I eat one right away, and put the other in my pocket. I think of eating it as I walk home, but my mask would get in the way. I meet with both bosses earlier in the day. That usually involves more obligatory cookies, but this time, they have put what they call American peanuts in a bowl on the desk. Apparently, “American” means that they are dry roasted. The usual peanuts available in the nut and grain stores here aren’t. My bosses grab them from the bowl by the handful. I take one at a time. We each have cups of simple coffee. To make it, we just put a spoonful of Turkish-ground coffee in our cups and pour hot water right in. The direct boss has a good espresso machine in his office. We’re welcome to use it, but it’s more of a complex ritual than what we usually do. Others in the office drink the simple coffee with a lot of milk. One worker, now gone, insisted on a complex process, filling the cup with boiling water, dumping it, filling it part way again, adding the grounds, filling it the rest of the way with milk, then putting the whole thing in the microwave. At least I think that’s how it worked. I would get lost trying to follow the pattern. At home, I drink cold brew. I only have to make it up once a week or so. I don’t have cookies in my apartment. If I did, they wouldn’t last long.