I Met Karen Walker

Fans of Will and Grace will be familiar with the character of Karen Walker. Elegant, pill-pounding and utterly unbelievable in her brash comments and money-flaunting, she is just the best. A character for any situation and someone who always makes me laugh and has been a good friend to watch after late night conference calls as I try to wind-down and go to sleep.

Since we have been in Hong Kong, I have been a "regular" at the many local Starbucks, taking advantage of the coffee, comfy chairs, and reading environment to break from the home office. At the largest Starbucks that I go to, it takes up almost an entire floor of one of the downtown skyscrapers, “Karen” has been a fixture on one of the leather couches during this time. She can be wearing a baseball cap, hair in a pony tail, clad in enormous dark glasses, and flopped on a couch, and yet be carrying a Dolce & Gabbana shopping bag at 9am and looking like she owns the place. I have seen her take court on the couches, receiving multiple sets of visitors in a given sitting, which can last more than two hours. Today, I learned that “Karen” is really Giovani or “Jo."

My outfit was absurd today. Long-sleeved t-shirt emblazoned with logo from a college-pizza joint, khaki pants, and running shoes. If Eric had been in town, I think he would have locked the door before I could leave the apartment. But somehow I ended up at Starbucks and was set in reading my newspaper when Jo came over. After a few minutes she engaged in conversation and I learned that she recently left a job with Christie’s auction house. Specializing in diamond and gem appraisals, she has lived and worked in Hong Kong for more than 15 years, but has since going to part-timer employment with Christie’s set about writing children’s books. What a character!

I won’t bore with too many details of our conversation, but suffice it to say that Jo has been in a many-month Starbucks flirtation with a researcher from the Rand Corporation. She sought my advice because I find I am really good a providing advice to people trying to interact with intellectuals – some of my coworkers may get a chuckle out of that one. In any case, Jo, I mean Karen, no I mean Jo was as interesting and quirky elegant as I expected.