The perks of being a good slave

I don’t usually go out for coffee as I have no need for that. I have a very good coffee machine at home. My friends also have nice coffee machines and probably more expensive coffee at home, yet they feel compelled to visit extremely fancy coffee shops, as well. Not for a social reason, like meeting with friends and catching up. No, just for the pleasure of being in a fancy place. A friend was telling me earlier: ‘it’s fun to watch the passers-by giving you dirty look as the High Heels coffee place is so freaking expensive’.
Literally! What can you even answer to such a thing?!
As a coffee addict, I always make sure I know where my next fix is coming from. When I’m away from home, I do stop at coffee shops, and if there’s a Costa within a five mile radius, my daughter, @honeydue, will surely be able to find it….

We used GPS to locate this little place in Paris!

However, the people I’m talking about feel the need to go to very expensive places for a different reason - to prove they can afford it, which is just another means to justify the stressful lives they lead. After a week of hard work, at least on Friday afternoon or over the weekend they get to relax having a nice coffee in a fancy place.
The irony of it all is that the friend telling me about this posh place is in terrible health and he has to drink decaf coffee. All thoughts he had about leaving the corporate world after his heart surgery, vanished. No kids to put through college, no mortgage to pay - still, he’d rather be a slave to the system just to be able to afford more stuff.
I do have a friend with whom I sometimes go out for a coffee - that’s OK since we get a chance to talk face to face. What I hate is the after coffee part - walking aimlessly through the mall, looking for stuff to buy. I guess she finds it equally annoying, since I’m always like ‘nah, you don’t need to buy that crap’….
Again, I’m not against the mall, but I usually go there with a specific purpose in mind. Last week, my boy needed new headphones - so we went to one particular shop for that, found a decently-priced pair of headphones, had a bite to eat and we went home, just in time for my afternoon coffee!
I’m not against money either, I’m patiently waiting for the moment Steem reaches $100… or at least $10…. what I cannot understand is this justifying your slavery to a job you hate by being able to spend more money than your neighbor. It’s not even they’re actually rich, after all it’s just a bloody coffee and some over-priced clothes…
When you’re already having heart disease and you need to see the doctor and have tests every other week, what’s the point of wasting the (little) time you have left working like a slave the whole week so you can enjoy a lousy decaf in a ridiculously expensive place every weekend?
What’s even sadder is that, in the end, there’s always another rat waiting to take your place at the wheel and your table at the coffee shop!

Thanks for reading