Here's a Joke: A Woman with a Laptop Walks into Starbucks.

I'm sitting in Starbucks, reading articles on girls in the gaming community and making notes, trying to make blog posts, but I am having a hard time focusing.

There is a guy next to me that has his Alienware laptop set up with his Razer mouse and Razer headset (relatively pricey gaming gear). The box for his headset is flung on the table next to him and every so often he will tap his jar of chew on the table and take some out. An empty venti Starbucks cup that is seemingly clean stands at attention next to him, dueling with a McDonald's cup. What is this guy doing here? His scruffy beard lays on his black sweatshirt, scratching against it as he makes quick movements in surprise or anger as he plays his game.

I'm trying not to stare because I don't want to be that rude woman. But he's distracting. And I want to know what game he's playing.

I think about asking him, about trying to strike up a conversation.

But then I question if it would be rude to interrupt him. I remember my boyfriend has always told me nothing is anyone's goddamn business. And he's right. And I've been uncomfortable with prodding questions before from strangers. I know it can be annoying. But I also love talking to people. I pretend to act annoyed when someone strikes up a conversation with me when my boyfriend is around. After all, I'm supposed to want to be left alone, right?

Is this gendered? Am I looking too much into this?


I thought "man, how ironic is this?" But what am I referring to? That I am a female gamer doing research on female gamers while a male gamer loudly games in public, sucking up all of the wifi juice?

But there's also a loud man in front of me, typing on his laptop and having a private conversation in public. And there aren't any women. Except for the Baristas. They aren't always women. But it just so happens here, at this Starbucks, at this time, they are all women. And I get this feeling that women wouldn't sit in public and have phone conversations that could be taken in their car. And I get this feeling that women wouldn't sit in public, sucking up precious Starbucks wifi to play their game or watch a stream.

Because I know that I wouldn't do any of these things in public; I don't want to be a bother. I don't want to annoy anyone, and I definitely don't want that dreaded confrontation from the man that needs me to be quiet, maybe because he needs to have his private-public phone call in silence.

And then I tell myself to be polite. Don't bother the man. Don't assume he has plenty of money for wifi or that his roommate is sleeping or that his boyfriend or girlfriend needs some space or that he's visiting a family member and they live out in the country, or that he lives out in the country where wifi is more expensive than rent, food, clothes, and a car payment all wrapped into one. Because if I assume any of those things, I can't be angry at the fact that he looks fine, relatively clean, that he has an insanely expensive laptop and insanely expensive gear to match it.

But I'm sitting next to him with an iPad Pro and my Macbook. I have a custom built gaming PC at home. I can't judge either way. He may be perfectly wealthy but feels like taking up public space to do something that should definitely be left at home. Am I being judgemental? I should stop thinking about this. I shouldn't say anything and just move on with my day. After all, I don't want to bother the poor man.