39. Breakaway

We all know the adage that we can’t judge books by their covers. Still, Feelings & Co producer Jordan Turgeon couldn’t help but be surprised when a fellow coffee shop patron shared her affinity for a particular 2004 pop song. 

Transcripts may not appear in their final version and are subject to change.

I’m Jordan Turgeon, and it’s going to be okay.

I worked from home long before COVID-19 made it commonplace. So by the time 2020 rolled around, I had a lot of practice under my belt. I was used to living and working in near total solitude. I was accustomed to going full days without seeing another human being. And frankly, I thrived that way. The few days I went into an office for meetings, my productivity plummeted. In the solace of my small home office, I was unstoppable.

But that was then. Today, I find myself needing to get. the heck. out. of my house. I need to be around people. Especially during the dead of Minnesota winter. Thankfully, I have a small group of industry friends who also work from home and feel the same way; we gather our laptops and get together weekly for a change of scenery.

On days when I need to be especially productive but also find myself jumping out of my skin (or when I feel what Nora calls “The Dreads” creeping), I put on my best athleisure – it’s from Costco; it’s always from Costco – and head to my neighborhood coffee and donut shop. If I’m lucky, I get there early enough that they still have a gluten-free, dairy-free banana chocolate chip scone left, and that alone is my “OK” thing for the day. (Those things fly off the counter – they’re that good.)

Even on unlucky days, though, this shop brings me back to life. Its aesthetic can best be described as, “Neon colors and rainbow sprinkles exploded everywhere.” (They have a donut called the Lisa Frank, which really tells you all you need to know.) Their coffee is always smooth, never burnt, and comes in to-go cups that say things like, “Tastes like happy” on the side. The staffers are friendly and kind. The entire perimeter of the place is lined with electrical outlets (and if you’ve ever worked from a coffee shop, you know how crucial this is). And it’s always just the right amount of busy for an small shop. The kind of busy that makes you happy to know this independent business is thriving but still feel like you’re a part of a neighborhood secret. That not everyone knows about this place … only the right kind of people.

But what I love most about this shop isn’t the outlets or the neon sprinkle signage or the welcoming staff. It’s the music selection.

Now, if you’re neurodiverse, the mere concept of trying to get work done while Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus and The Killers and pretty much any Top 40 song from the early aughts flows through the speakers might send you into a spiral. It puts me into production overdrive. I turn into the equivalent of that GIF of Kermit the Frog typing on a typewriter.

One recent morning, during that time of year when it’s not really winter anymore but there’s still somehow three feet of snow on the ground, the playlist was exceptionally good. No skips. Bop after bop. I would’ve purchased that playlist on vinyl if I could. And at one point, I glanced over at a nearby table and discovered I wasn’t the only patron enjoying the music. 

The late-30s, maybe early-40s-something man was typing away on a laptop covered with witty political and activism stickers. He wore black gauges in his ears. Tattoos crawled up the side of his neck and disappeared somewhere beneath his shag of a haircut. And he aggressively bobbed his head as if enjoying the set live at a darkened concert venue. 

And what song was he rocking out to, you ask?

Kelly Clarkson’s “Breakaway.”

[SHORT CLIP OF THE SONG HERE – DON’T GET SUED]

This song brings up a lot of memories for me. It came out the year I graduated from high school and became the ballad of choice as my friends and I all departed for college. I’m pretty sure I still have several mix CDs somewhere in my basement that feature this song as the opening track.

So, it makes sense that *I* was sitting in my feelings and lip-synching along as I sipped my cafe au lait with oat milk and vanilla syrup. But this guy? 

Now, I know appearances can be deceiving. I know we can’t judge books by their covers. That said, this was a man who had studiously stretched holes into his earlobes large enough to store Susan B Anthony dollar coins. 

This man knows all the words to Breakaway? 

This man has his eyes squeezed closed and a sweet grin on his face as he sways his head back and forth to the dulcet tones of Kelly Brianne Clarkson? 

At one point, the man glanced up from his computer screen, and our eyes met from across the coffee shop. I gave him a knowing bob of my head as I completely botched the words … Take a change? Make a chance? Take a wish? No. Take a … listen, that song’s hard. The man smirked and gave me a nod right back, without missing a beat or fumbling a lyric.

Was this the beginning of a coffee shop romance? Was this our meet cute? Would we go on to get married and have our first dance to a string quartet cover of this 2004 pop classic? 

No.  

But thanks to the original American Idol Kelly Clarkson herself, for that one moment, this stranger and I connected. Just two remote workers, plucking away at our laptops at our favorite neighborhood coffee shop … spreading our wings, and learning how to fly. 

I’m Jordan Turgeon, and it’s going to be okay. And in case you’re wondering … yes, I wrote the draft that eventually became this episode while sitting at a table at that very coffee and donut shop. Sadly, my duet partner wasn’t there that day.