Customers are Characters.

Ned's (the place I work) is a character in itself. It has been sitting on a sport fishing dock for nearly 50 years and has a very unique charm. It is located right next door to a Sport Fishing joint(which is 50 years old too) on a tiny pier that looks as if it could fall over with the next wave. In the 50 years that this place has been in business it has generated a very interesting crowd of people, most of which are regulars that have been coming for 20 or more years, others are fisherman, and many are foreigners who stay at the hotel across the street. Along with the ones listed, we have a good amount of little known celebrities, and the customers that might as well be famous. I guess the main point of this whole spiel is to introduce my diverse clientele and examine people and their persona's in general. I have got to tell you, we get some pretty interesting characters at this joint.

Starting with him (Puck), from MTV's very first "The Real World" crew. For those of you who have never seen it or don't know who I'm talking about, I urge you to YouTube him and the episodes he was in. I would describe him as... controversial?? That's putting it mildly. Anyways, he came in this past Saturday morning and happened to witness me trip over someones chair and fall flat on my face in the middle of a breakfast rush. Oh yeah, and I was holding a customer's take-out. He asked me for a diet coke right after ward then proceeded to fish with his son and my neighbor over at the fishing joint. I mean come on, how do you keep a straight face after seeing something like that and order a diet coke? I guess good old grandmaster Puck does.

Then there's the fisherman dude who comes in about three times per week and orders the same exact thing every single time and yet it takes him about a half an hour before he decides what to eat. He lives on his boat and always has a weird smell to him. It's kind of a cross between Old Spice and cheese. I don't know his name so we'll just call him the "Weird Fisherman Cowboy." I say cowboy because he wears tight jeans and a cowboy boots all the time and he fishes and sails in this get up. I kid you not. (Also, he has a ponytail and wears jewelry.. Like earrings and turquoise bracelets.) What makes him weird, aside from the costume and funky smell is the fact that he sits and stares at me the entire time. He doesn't flirt, in fact he's kind of a grump yet he stares at me the whole time, even when he is eating with other people. He drinks about 400 cups of coffee just to have a reason to stare. I mean what the hell? Who does that? If you are one of those weird characters who decide to wear funky clothes and smell cheesy, I urge you not to stare at people and act like a space cadet, otherwise you just might have an entire blog dedicated to your weirdness.