I read quite a few blogs and the one thing that has always ticked me off a little is when the blogger leaves a 3 week gap between posts. I promised myself I would never do that....FAIL! So I apologize to the hundreds of people reading my blog and I will never do it again....I hope.
Hibernate like a bear.
Anyways, part of the reason I haven't posted in so long is because of my abnormal amount of prolonged sleep. A few weeks after moving back home, my automobile decided to crap out on me, leaving me stranded to share my grandma's old 1987 Grand Marquis (which gets about 12 mpg) with my parents, who both have jobs. I guess part of the reason I moved back home in the first place is so that I can afford a new vehicle, so I'm lucky it happened now than at my old apartment. But since I am without a car, I have lost motivation to do just about anything and everything. So sleep has been my friend lately, for the most part. Not only do I blame my dead car, but I also blame daylight-savings time because it gets dark at 6pm and is nothing but depressing. I just want to thank God for a new car that I am soon to purchase and amazing friends who are always willing to pick me up when I am stuck at home.
"This doesn't taste like my drink"--"Is your name Bob?"--"No."--"Well that's why."
Please do not be this type of customer. I'm just saying, I will look down at you if you do this to me. I guarantee this is on every barista's list of "Top Ten Most Annoying Customer Habits" and believe me, you do NOT want to be on this list.
So when you walk into Starbucks, you get in line and place your order at the register. Now any barista with an IQ of 32 will know that they need to mark your cup and label what drink it is, and preferredly put your name on the cup...then the person on bar makes the drink to standard and calls the drink out (and name, if labeled) to the person, NICE AND LOUD. And depending on how "rockstar" the bar person is, they can get many drinks out pretty quickly with the help of fellow baristas.======Now, as a customer, DO NOT go to the handoff counter and grab whatever cup you think is yours and just start drinking it before you actually know that it is, in fact, your drink. I am asking you to please please check for your name and please ask a barista for help in finding your drink. So many customers come up to the counter, see a drink, and automatically assume that the drink is theirs. I don't mind that you think your drink was magically hand-crafted from the time you walked from the register to the hand-off counter in 3.7 seconds, but just double check. It is far less irritating to check a drink for you than to remake a drink because you decided to drink out of someone else's cup.
OH! and as sad and gross as it sounds, I have had many-a-customer drink out of someone else's drink, realize their mistake, and then have the audacity to tell me, "I barely drank out of their cup, you don't need to remake their drink, they won't ever know"....excuse me? How do I know that you don't have mad-cow disease, swine flu or some other creepy disease?
Monday, November 29, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Dear Mother Nature, keep the snow to yourself!
I have spoken before about my bi-polar customers, but today they are not an issue. This morning I woke up to the blinding sight of white. No, not my white ceiling, but the disgusting brightness of ....wait for it.....SNOW. And guess what tomorrows forecast calls for....60's and sunny. I guess that's what happens when your parents decide to breed in this place called South Bend, Indiana. It really isn't a bad place, especially if you like to enjoy all 4 seasons. But weeks like this make me want to swallow a bottle of Zoloft. One day, nice and sunny but cool--next day, nice and sunny, but warm--next day, SNOW. Now those bi-polar customers don't sound so bad.
The snow only reminds me that the time is coming when I have to be shut in this house ALL THE DAMN TIME. I might die a little. I was really spoiled to be given 8 months of quietness away from my family. It was amazing. But now that I am back, for the most part, stress in terms of money is minimal. The fact that I don't have to worry about stretching a paycheck to last one entire month is a blessing....but it IS possible, and now I know that I can make money last. Sometimes I think I would trade $500 a month for it to be quiet again, but that's what you call 'family'. At almost any given time, you will find my mom, dad, Erika, Elisa, Samantha, Tyler, Seviryn, Aiyana, and Maile...along with a dog, 2 cats and 7 kittens in my house at once....oh and me. That is a crap load of talking, screaming creatures walking in a 2,000 square foot house! Erika and her 3 kids don't even live there! (hint hint..hahahaha) Just pointing that out because earlier today, without realizing it, I insulted my sister when I asked her when she was leaving with her kids...oh well sorry Erika. I love my family, I love my family.
Now that my little frustrated lapse is over, I'm going to discuss a few awesome parts of a Starbucks winter. For one, it means far less frappuccinos, which for many many baristas means joy! I don't know why, but I would rather make a hot beverage over a frappuccino, hands down anytime....especially in a rush. Anything that requires you to walk away from the hot beverage bar towards the frappuccino bar is just an inconvenience. When I use to work the night shift (and no I'm not talking about a street corner job), my favorite parts were when people would come in to my Starbucks, and be filled with this cheer, a cheer that let everyone know that they loved life. And it was amazing to see people and their friends or family come in, order their favorite holiday drink (peppermint mocha, eggnog latte) and sit down and enjoy the night. It made me appreciate and further love my job. And if you want to really make us baristas happy...clean up after yourselves and put the chairs back to the appropriate tables. It makes our jobs easier and makes us like you more. Hey, maybe we'll take our sample tray to your table first so you can take the larger pieces of cranberry bliss bar :)
Today's words of advice: Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.
The snow only reminds me that the time is coming when I have to be shut in this house ALL THE DAMN TIME. I might die a little. I was really spoiled to be given 8 months of quietness away from my family. It was amazing. But now that I am back, for the most part, stress in terms of money is minimal. The fact that I don't have to worry about stretching a paycheck to last one entire month is a blessing....but it IS possible, and now I know that I can make money last. Sometimes I think I would trade $500 a month for it to be quiet again, but that's what you call 'family'. At almost any given time, you will find my mom, dad, Erika, Elisa, Samantha, Tyler, Seviryn, Aiyana, and Maile...along with a dog, 2 cats and 7 kittens in my house at once....oh and me. That is a crap load of talking, screaming creatures walking in a 2,000 square foot house! Erika and her 3 kids don't even live there! (hint hint..hahahaha) Just pointing that out because earlier today, without realizing it, I insulted my sister when I asked her when she was leaving with her kids...oh well sorry Erika. I love my family, I love my family.
Now that my little frustrated lapse is over, I'm going to discuss a few awesome parts of a Starbucks winter. For one, it means far less frappuccinos, which for many many baristas means joy! I don't know why, but I would rather make a hot beverage over a frappuccino, hands down anytime....especially in a rush. Anything that requires you to walk away from the hot beverage bar towards the frappuccino bar is just an inconvenience. When I use to work the night shift (and no I'm not talking about a street corner job), my favorite parts were when people would come in to my Starbucks, and be filled with this cheer, a cheer that let everyone know that they loved life. And it was amazing to see people and their friends or family come in, order their favorite holiday drink (peppermint mocha, eggnog latte) and sit down and enjoy the night. It made me appreciate and further love my job. And if you want to really make us baristas happy...clean up after yourselves and put the chairs back to the appropriate tables. It makes our jobs easier and makes us like you more. Hey, maybe we'll take our sample tray to your table first so you can take the larger pieces of cranberry bliss bar :)
Today's words of advice: Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Happy Starbucks Hallo-thanks-mas everybody!
It's that time of year again...for Starbucks.
Yes, Halloween was just 2 days ago, and it was AWESOME! But I will talk more about that in a second.
For any seasoned barista, and that means any barista who has survived the last holiday season beginning around Halloween, we begin to mentally prepare ourselves for the bi-polar lashing of our customers. For many of our customers, the only time you see the whites of their teeth are right before Thanksgiving, and sometimes that can mean MORE tips, but other times, that means they are only showing their grinch-like smiles. Don't get me wrong, the Fall-through-Christmas season is most definitely my favorite, but at the Bux it's all over the place.
It means rollouts, pumpkin spice lattes, red Christmas cups, peppermint mochas, eggnog lattes, gingerbread lattes, cranberry-bliss bars, store decorations, red aprons, and joy joy joy joy joy. But when it comes to the cleaning, it means snow...and snow only means dirty, nasty, street-salt water stained floors that need to be mopped more than once a day. AHHHHH!!! OK, I'll live.
But anyways, Halloween was tight. After 3 years, we were allowed to dress up in our costumes at work again. So that alone made my day. Since Halloween was on a Sunday, and I open every Sunday, I knew it was going to be a quick morning. Obviously, most of our customers either work or go to school on Monday, and that meant they got all their partying and drunkenness done the night before my open....so it was an easy, slow morning. I showed up to work wearing a lot of random clothing and huge glasses, while my fellow barista showed up in her pajamas. The best part of the day, besides for getting to eat candy at 5AM, was getting to make almost every customer including the grumpy ones crack a smile. We looked ridiculous! Sometimes wearing a uniform is uncomfortable, so my first choice was comfort.....hence the picture below.
Also, I highly recommend enjoying a nice Pumpkin Spice Latte on Halloween, it definitely helps capture the whole Fall season....if you don't like them then we can't be friends anymore.
Outside of Starbucks, this was only my second year of not going trick-or-treating. Yeah yeah, I know. It's still a little sad to think about the fact that I am now passed the age of having to care about anything but how much candy I will get, but also amazing to see my little nieces and nephew grow up. My parents moved into our most recent home only 3 months after I was born, so just over 20 years ago. There are 250 houses in my neighborhood, so 10-13 years ago...Halloween was INSANE. Almost every single house handed out candy and the child population was ridiculous. Back when I was 10 years old, kids were everywhere! We would get so much candy we could barely carry our pillow cases anymore. And back in the day, most of the kids made their own costumes, nowadays, they buy all these slutty nasty costumes and come home with a fourth of what we got. It's still hilarious though. Below is a picture of my little niece Aiyana dressed in her store bought princess costume. You can probably tell where she gets her good looks from. Oh yeah, it was about 45 degrees outside....she was not happy.
Now when it comes to Thanksgiving at Starbucks, the only notable thing to mention is the Thanksgiving Blend Coffee. And it's actually not bad stuff. Also, the pumpkin spice continues for awhile after this. Thanksgiving means a holiday with a time and 1/2 pay rate which is nice for people who work that day, but I tend to not work it because I have personally cooked every holiday meal since I was 13....and I'm not giving up anytime soon. I might actually get to work the opening shift and get off early enough to give me time to cook, but that is all up to my awesome manager.
~~~~~~
I was going to write about that Starbucks hell called Christmas, but it hurts too much to talk about right now....give me a day or two.
Seacrest out!
Yes, Halloween was just 2 days ago, and it was AWESOME! But I will talk more about that in a second.
For any seasoned barista, and that means any barista who has survived the last holiday season beginning around Halloween, we begin to mentally prepare ourselves for the bi-polar lashing of our customers. For many of our customers, the only time you see the whites of their teeth are right before Thanksgiving, and sometimes that can mean MORE tips, but other times, that means they are only showing their grinch-like smiles. Don't get me wrong, the Fall-through-Christmas season is most definitely my favorite, but at the Bux it's all over the place.
It means rollouts, pumpkin spice lattes, red Christmas cups, peppermint mochas, eggnog lattes, gingerbread lattes, cranberry-bliss bars, store decorations, red aprons, and joy joy joy joy joy. But when it comes to the cleaning, it means snow...and snow only means dirty, nasty, street-salt water stained floors that need to be mopped more than once a day. AHHHHH!!! OK, I'll live.
But anyways, Halloween was tight. After 3 years, we were allowed to dress up in our costumes at work again. So that alone made my day. Since Halloween was on a Sunday, and I open every Sunday, I knew it was going to be a quick morning. Obviously, most of our customers either work or go to school on Monday, and that meant they got all their partying and drunkenness done the night before my open....so it was an easy, slow morning. I showed up to work wearing a lot of random clothing and huge glasses, while my fellow barista showed up in her pajamas. The best part of the day, besides for getting to eat candy at 5AM, was getting to make almost every customer including the grumpy ones crack a smile. We looked ridiculous! Sometimes wearing a uniform is uncomfortable, so my first choice was comfort.....hence the picture below.
Outside of Starbucks, this was only my second year of not going trick-or-treating. Yeah yeah, I know. It's still a little sad to think about the fact that I am now passed the age of having to care about anything but how much candy I will get, but also amazing to see my little nieces and nephew grow up. My parents moved into our most recent home only 3 months after I was born, so just over 20 years ago. There are 250 houses in my neighborhood, so 10-13 years ago...Halloween was INSANE. Almost every single house handed out candy and the child population was ridiculous. Back when I was 10 years old, kids were everywhere! We would get so much candy we could barely carry our pillow cases anymore. And back in the day, most of the kids made their own costumes, nowadays, they buy all these slutty nasty costumes and come home with a fourth of what we got. It's still hilarious though. Below is a picture of my little niece Aiyana dressed in her store bought princess costume. You can probably tell where she gets her good looks from. Oh yeah, it was about 45 degrees outside....she was not happy.
Now when it comes to Thanksgiving at Starbucks, the only notable thing to mention is the Thanksgiving Blend Coffee. And it's actually not bad stuff. Also, the pumpkin spice continues for awhile after this. Thanksgiving means a holiday with a time and 1/2 pay rate which is nice for people who work that day, but I tend to not work it because I have personally cooked every holiday meal since I was 13....and I'm not giving up anytime soon. I might actually get to work the opening shift and get off early enough to give me time to cook, but that is all up to my awesome manager.
~~~~~~
I was going to write about that Starbucks hell called Christmas, but it hurts too much to talk about right now....give me a day or two.
Seacrest out!
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