Coffee Break

Over the last year and a half, I have become quite adept at "meeting for coffee." Whether a one-hour networking thing, or a several-hour, once a week debrief-slash-talk down-from-the-ledge with an unemployed friend thing, or a writing session between kid pickups, the coffee break has become a somewhat integral part of my life.
 
This morning, I had coffee at Starbucks. With my son. And as we sipped our coffee (in his case, hot chocolate), we chatted, and wrote (he, his entry for an online writing camp he's doing, I, the beginnings of this post), and learned a little bit more about each other. It was an hour-long encapsulation of my year of coffee breaks. Did it give me a job lead? No, but it got me thinking about my capabilities and those of the person sitting across from me. It wasn't the "me time" you'd think about when you think about going for coffee, and yet, it was, since I got to see my son in a bit of a different way, and enjoyed his company while doing that. So, as happens with many coffee breaks, I walked away with a little more spring in my step, both from the coffee and from the company.
 
In the midst of my job search, someone had told me how useful "having coffee" with people could be. Today, I got to see a new version of just how useful.