Thirteen going on...

Today, I found myself killing time and being drawn into a movie on tv. 13 going on 30 to be more specific. And right on the heals of not only taking a trip down memory lane, looking at old pictures from high school age activities and filling out some survey about whether or not I would go back to those days. I wouldn't want to, at least I don't think I would really want to. Why would I want to change who I am today? But watching that stirred some thought, and some emotion. Not because I wish I could change things about the past, but think about how simple things can be versus how complex we make them. We push and we pull, we deceive, we try to create opportunity by playing games with those we care about. Not all things we do are negative, but almost always, it seems we're not completely honest. We're not honest with ourselves, we seem to fear the thing we desire most. This, of course is all, speculation...

I think the thing we long most for is a connection. With a particular person or group or idea. We long to dive deep into a relationships knowing that sharing an experience makes that experience worth while and meaningful. i mean, if we're not here for community, what is our purpose?

Brown Penny

"Romantic" by definition is "imaginary but impractical, visionary". . . has romance left the scene, is it something that is often referred to in a past tense, something not of this age? Is it something in this day in age where any gesture would fall under ridicule simply because the mere impression of it lacks integrity or is it that we are so caught up in our day to day business...that we fail to enjoy the simple things we so easily overlook. I'm thinking of this in a very broad sense of course, however, I would consider myself a person who may fall within this category. I sometimes I wonder if the current day has catered so much to the immediate gratification that some of the magic has been lost.

I'm beginning to wonder if this rant has a point....

...honestly I don't know...should it? What I do know is things don't seem as simple as they once were. We live in a cynical world so full of "HR" the mere idea of the possibility of offending people seems to ruffle so many feathers that rarely are any chances taken. I don't want to send the impression that the HR portion of our world in useless or not needed...it is. But what I'm getting to is that the world that has so many possibilities...so much "vision," a place where impractical becomes reality...that often times we don't take chances..we don't step outside our box. We hesitate, we don't say what we mean. We keep it inside. Romance often leads to the stepping out...the chances we take...especially when it comes to love.

It seems that we can't truly experience what love has to offer unless we first experience the hurt, and at the same time allow ourselves to heal so that we can begin the journey once more. Or, we seem to time and time again sabotage those relationships that could mean something because of a fear. Because it may be too good to be true.

I whispered, "i am too young,"
and then, "I am old enough;"
Wherefore I threw a penny
To find out if I might love

"Go and love, go and love, young man,
If the lady be young and fair."
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
I am looped in the loops of her hair.

O love is the crooked thing,
There is nobody wise enough
To find out all that is in it,
For he would be thinking of love.

Till the stars had run away
And the shadows eaten the moon.
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
One cannot begin it too soon.

Back to the Future

its official. In a matter of days I will no longer be working for caribou coffee. For those of you who do not know, I have accepted a position with eq-life. Excited is an understatement. But if I wasn't anxious before.... let me give you a small recap of my last couple of days:

For starters, I opened the store yesterday. Another day started bright and early--sometime around the hour of four. After scraping myself off of my pillow, and stumbling into the shower, I found myself setting up the store for our wonderful caffeine addicted customers.

"I have to leave by 12...." one of my sup's started to tell me. After an explanation somewhat drawn out, knowing that I would be in the store even though I wasn't scheduled to be, we came to the conclusion that it would be okay if she left 3 hours early.
"What a weird shift.... ....but i'm off by 10..." another supervisor proclaimed out loud an hour later. "Huh? ...you're here until one!" I fired back. We both made a bee-line to the schedule. After realizing she was incorrect, she explained to me her circumstance based around the shift she thought she worked, we came to the same conclusion of the previous situation.

In my head I'm thinking it will be fine. We really only need two people here anyway, and they might as well leave since I'm here. Well, it turns out, that everything that I had expected to get done, didn't. And on top of it.... I had to re-train a team member on how to make drinks in the middle of a rush because of customer disapoints. Without going into great detail on the rest of the day, my 'easy-day-in-the-back-room-allowing-me-to-get-some-things-done' quickly turned into a crazy, stressful, long twelve hour day.

Which brings me to today....

As I'm rubbing my eyes, wondering why I'm hearing smooth criminal at ten after five, I answer my phone. Someone is late... my shift is asking if its okay to go in. Of course I'm going to say yes. As I tell her to go look at the schedule and make the appropriate phone call, I'm already anticipating re-entering the dream I was pulled out of so quickly.

"...I'm beginning to hate this song" I think as I roll over 20 minutes later. "yeah" I say almost as if I'm expecting the call. What is the purpose of a phone call to the store manager at 5:40 in the morning to communicate that a machine might be broke. I don't get it...

I know I love this song, but now its starting to feel a little over played! Why?!? Why are they calling me so much this morning? This time, its another person. Telling me he's sick and can't find anyone. my response: if your sick... gotta take care of yourself... do what you need to do..." I hang up. As I crawl out of the shower, I notice I've missed yet another call. There is a message... this one is saying that I don't need to come in, someone has agreed to come in. I crawl back in bed.

Next thing I know its sometime after eight. I finish getting ready and go into work. I get there to find out that the person covering can't be there for the entire shift. I also realize that if I hadn't hired someone yesterday, we'd be in worse shape. Needless to say, more training today... and another long one in the books.

As I slide into the drivers seat I think to myself: November 6, can't come soon enough.

C.H. Part II

coffee house update...

Remember the employee with the thank you card?
she stopped in caribou looking for me today. I happened to
just walked in to ensure all was good, when I turn around, and WHAM!
"hey!..." she started. Apparently she was still upset about walking
out on me. And is working for her old boss at another location.
I'm just glad its not mine... but seriously... like I told her:
water under the bridge.

And I might as well throw in for good measure...

I absolutely love getting 27 calls a day. My favorite ones have to do with...
"what do I do if.... " Pick your senario, it could end with: the safe is off, or
a customer is unhappy, or someone didn't show up on time, or what if I can't work....
It seems endless, most of which can be figured out without a phone call to yours
truely. Not that I don't appreciate it. But seriously people. You're smart, your driven,
thats why I hired you. Now go prove it....

(disclaimer to previous rant: does not apply to everyone who works in my store)

Coffee House

There is something to be said for coffee drinkers. I myself, am not one. I get it though, the addiction, the social aspect, even having it be the official start to any day. And since I've been in charge of this coffee shop, I've seen many things, many different people in many situations. There are people who come in multiple times a day, the customer who will order the same drink 21 times a week...

But a few my most interesting times there have involved:

Ray-bans: Forget the black sunglasses he didn't take off the entire interview, this guy not only referred to himself in the third person, but also told me all about how his parents met, and why that somehow related to him working for caribou....
I haven't seen him wear those sunglasses since the day of the interview...three months ago.

drama queen: I had an employee walk out and not come back except to give us all cards, including a birthday card in which she wrote to me: "...please remember me for the card and not me quitting..." The kicker was that she decided she wanted to come back two days later. "Under my conditions" she stated, as she's telling me how much she'd like to work for me again. Needless to say, I haven't seen her since.

Help Desk: Caribou has what they call a help desk. You call when you have an issue, and they are supposed to fix it. Well, I'm on a first name basis with most of those helpers. Not because I don't know what I'm doing, but because I've spent the last two months entering our "off-line" credit cards manually. I hate being off-line. To say the least, i've used some choice words lately...

Ether way, There is something every day... I'll tell you about yesterday later.