Smarty Art: End of An Era

Saturday, January 21, 2012

End of An Era

I knew this day would come. Did I? Actually sometimes I was afraid that this day would never come. What day you ask?

My last day at Starbucks.

I started my love affair with the bux in April of '06. I took a break to do DTS in New Haven a few years ago and, (i blame you, DM) lost all my stock and whatever other goodies I had stored up for almost four years, but whatever, I still returned as soon as I could. Its been a bit of a love/hate relationship between Starbucks and I. I love getting off of work at noon. I hate getting up at 4 am. I love free coffee. I hatee serving coffee. I love ~~all~~ ~~most~~ some of the people I work with; I don't always love the old dudes who think its funny to make me tug dollar bills out of their hand to pay for coffee or who complain about how expensive things are or forget my name or, when I'm pregnant, as my HOW MANY BABIES I'M HAVING. I love the part of customer service where you get to see how wacky and hilarious people are, but I hate the part where you get to see how vile people are.

Once we had a customer sing and dance out the actual routine from Thriller for a free drink. It was AWESOME. But once when my friend was cleaning off the condiment bar, she heard a little kid tell his mom that he wanted to work at Starubucks when he was older and she said, "Yeah right. When you grow up you are getting a REAL job." So there's a happy childhood ahead of him, I'm sure.

One time we made a mocha in my friend Kyle's mouth while he laid on the floor. It was probably the hardest I've ever laughed at work. But once a guy chased his girlfriend out of the store, hitting her.

Once a guy with a parrot on his shoulder came inside and ordered coffee and tried to start a fight with a man who casually asked about the parrot. I know. I know. Why would I ever leave such an circus?

Once a guy fell asleep in the drive-thru and we thought he might be dead.

Once a dude in a suit acted like he had no humanity because we were out of coffee. Oh wait - that was about 10,000 times.

Once someone left a $200 tip.

Once my friend was robbed in the parking lot at night.

Once we found a baby doll in the attic.

The best thing that Starbucks did for me was give me a home for the past 6 years - not just a place to work - and introduce me to people who I never would have had the chance to know and love without Sbux. And that is why I managed to stay there for 6 years. Finally, the cons outweighed the pros and also, I have a baby now and I'm pretty sure that I will die if I have to keep getting up at 4 am (see my last post regarding sleeplessness).

1 comment:

emilyFebruary 3, 2012 at 2:32 PM
SOOOOO happy you're writing again!!!

I think I actually had a .00026 second stroke when I read about the baby in the attic.

We need to seriously have dates now that you don't have to get up at 4 bleeping A.M. :)
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The Best Advice for Beginners

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners; I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple of years you make stuff, it's just not good. It's trying to be good, it has potential, but it's not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, it's still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn't have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out of you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I've ever met. Its gonna take a while. You've just gotta fight your way through.

-Ira Glass