After being laid off from her job six months ago, freelancer Patricia Kennedy has turned a corner of her local Starbucks into her own personal workspace. According to multiple first-hand accounts, the 33-year-old has leveraged her tall drip coffee purchase into an entire rent-free cubicle, just for herself.
Tensions rose at 8:45 am Tuesday, when Kennedy advanced on the southern corner of the downtown coffee establishment, dropping her gym and laptop bags on the floor. Nearby coffee patron Natalie Cashman was startled by the aggressive behavior, moving three tables together to house her dual-laptop setup.
“I was halfway through a story about wind chimes in my Home and Garden magazine,” said Natalie, “when out of nowhere this Spartan woman raced in and threw her stuff everywhere like she owned the place.”
Over the next 30 minutes, Kennedy installed a full Mac tower, multi-line telephone, HP Inkjet Printer, and Keurig espresso machine in her corner of the Starbucks, and was preparing to take her first Skype conference call of the day.
Several coffee patrons observed stacked Diana Krall CD’s around the perimeter of her tables, “like cubicle walls,” while the barista wondered, “Where’d she get that water cooler?”
At press time, Kennedy’s new intern declined to comment on her behalf.
