So I’m sitting here at lunch, at St. Louis Bread Company (Panera Bread to the rest of the world), and I’m sparked to write by what I hear and see. I don’t often get out and mingle in this kind of setting, so it’s a little exercise of people watching for lunch for me.

(BTW, a ding for Bread Co. While I was able to connect to their wireless network, I was unable to send any data through it. Kinda acted like there was no dns. Bummer. Good thing I carry my little Sprint Wireless Broadband module!)

So, behind me is a suit on a cell who was neck deep in a conversation when I sat down. He’s talking about the folks he works with, problems with his company, and the software tools they use in their environment. And he’s loud. Everyone in this part of the seating area definitely knows his business. Why would you do that? I mean, if he had a competitor here, they’d be juiced full of info on this guy’s business.

There’s folks reading newspapers and mags. Surprisingly, there’s even students doing work — didn’t know school was in right now. And of course, there’s loads of folks here just to meet and greet each other, mostly off work from looking at their mode of dress. (Jealous, I am!) Overall though, aside from the suit behind me, it’s a reasonable noise level, and somewhere I could play on my Mac for an hour or so.

A pretty nice little setup, and one I could get used to for lunches!