Coffee Is Serious Business, Yo

While I ideologically think the coffee shop, as an independent business, has the right to refuse certain drinks, I don’t get why they would. I worked at a chain coffee shop all through college (B&N Cafe, No We Are NOT a Starbucks) and customers would request some screwy things & I never thought about in terms of ruining the integrity of coffee. You make the drink the customer requests & charge accordingly…in this case there wouldn’t even be a question. You just charge for the espresso & maybe at some places they charge for another cup/ice. (This may just be in NYC/other big cities)

I kind of like the customer response, just because I don’t see the point in imposing coffee snobbery on others, but with his attitude, I probably would have wanted to punch him in the face.

As for tipping, there are times when I throw my change in the tipbox at Starbucks, DD, etc. And I’ll admit that when it’s a cute guy making the drinks, I’ll make eye contact, smile, & wish I tipped more, because barista boys tend to be very cute.

“If this is inner peace then the Buddhists are wasting their fucking time”
-Kevin, quote of the week and perhaps the month.

Since the entry this morning was possibly unreasonably hostile, I am writing again, to counteract its tone. Livejournal has truly become the volumes.

Last night was good, then came home, fell asleep watching Shawshank Redemption. I also went for a walk today at lunch, because it is sunny and nice out, even though there is still a disgusting amount of slush.

Also, I love my Prince Charming frog. He is proudly perched upon my dresser the display-shelf-thing that came with the room. I purchased him for half price + employee discount at b&n a few weeks after Valentine’s Day last year, but just because he was cheap does not mean he is not PRICELESS. Obviously.

Hydration is the best thing ever. I’ve not felt like death at work in weeks.

I need to do laundry tonight. It will be an adventure, as my landlord has informed me it is impossible to do laundry, even though there are several Laundromats. My landlord and her husband also have “spirited” conversations in Greek. But she bakes us cookies, so the noise is forgivable. The hissing radiator is still scary.

I’m hyper and I haven’t even had coffee.

Although I am distressed to hear Christmas music where ever I go, I realized today, that this is the first time in eight years that I am not working some type of retail. No free turkeys, no eggnog lattes, and no hearing Xmas music for 10 hours straight. Now THAT is something to be thankful for.

And Just Like That

I have some intense bronchitis going on.

Thus, I’m actually using my sick days, because as tempting as it is to go to work and have the opportunity to infect hundreds of suburbanites with my illness, my inability to walk up the stairs without gasping for breathe makes me reluctant to run back and forth behind the counter all day. So I am giving into shunning responsibility. Which makes me antsy, because all I can think about is how I’m not at work, and I should be at work, and there are things I need to get done at work. Because I’m neurotic.

However, eventually I just start to bore myself. And then I get sick of clicking through my usual websites. And I think “hey, I haven’t read Reason lately.” So I start reading Reason, and then I have to click on all their links, and of course, I have to read Drudge Report, and then I get into reading this feature story in the London Times about what it dubs the “Arabian Spring,” and…

And I catch up on a lot of stuff that I haven’t been paying attention to.

It’s way too soon to claim I’m going to turn back into a political animal. But I must admit, there’s far more to read this way.

It’s always been a dream of mine, to be asked by you to go do coffee.

-Adam

Way to be an overeducated elitist

-Brent, on the fact that I knew the date of “The Lottery” (the short story) but not the date itself

What Would Be A Sign of The Apocolypse:

Seeing Brent hanging out at Starbucks

Dara- Whoa, and what happened on your break, missy?

Me- Huh?

Dara- You look so happy! You’re practically glowing.

Me- Well I just got a book I really wanted

Dara- What was it?

Me- Um…it was “The Age of Voltaire, because I’m collecting this series of books and….

Dara- Wow, you really are a nerd.

NascentIgnorance: i want to heckle a motivational speaker

“Don’t make me put you in a good mood!”

Employee Appreciation Weekend at b&n is the best thing ever. Now I have lots of new books, and I have to brag.

I got Machiavelli’s Discourses because I loved “The Prince” and because ‘Machiavelli is right about everything’ and I got Nietzsche’s Basic Writings, because I think I should read some Nietzsche before I graduate. John Locke’s Essay on Human Understanding, because as anyone who took AP US History I at IHHS knows “it’s all about John Locke!” Oh! And The Edmund Burke Companion, because he is ‘the original traditional conservative’ and I talked about him so much in my honors research that I want to read more. I also could not resist Ayn Rand’s The Voice of Reason because I am a sucker for all things Rand. I bought another copy of The Virtue of Selfishness, because I don’t know where mine went, and I finally own The Early Ayn Rand, probably solely for the story “The Husband I Bought” which is one of my favorite short stories era. And I got Peter Lawler’s Aliens in America because it’s been recommended to me by so many people that I figured I should probably read it.

Than I got The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich because Brent speaks so highly of it. And The Rise of Fascism, because I am slightly obsessed with the fascist ideology.

And there were 4 books from the series The Birth of Civilization (or smtg) so I got Rousseau and Revolution, The Age of Napoleon, The Reformation, and The Age of Louis XIV, because I adore Modern European History. And Germany, America, and England – Foreign Policy From 1918-1938.

And I got The Grammar of Politics and Philosophy because I am obsessed with words, and speaking of which, I had an entire conversation on Saturday night with one of my co-workers on Edith Wharton’s use of syntax, because the way in which she phrases things is just perfectly Victorian and so effective and awesome, and I adore her, so I had to buy The Cambridge Companion to Edith Wharton because I love encyclopedic junk like that. Which is also why I bought The Oxford Companion to Philosophy because the decathlete in me likes to keep names and dates and basic ideas ordered in my mind.

For my mass-market side I purchased Stephen Kings Dark Tower V & VI, even though I never finished III, and never read IV. My brother will appreciate them until I can get through them. I also picked up some ‘beach reads’ stuff to read if I actually get to the shore this summer.

For my nostalgic side, I got Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder, which is a slightly scandalous take on her and her daughter’s life. I have loved the Little House on the Prairie books since I was about 4, and I re-read them at least once a year, so I’m oddly fascinated by her, and her daughter, because Rose Wilder was actually a crazy libertarian pioneer and wrote The Discovery of Freedom: Man’s Struggle Against Authority. (which I highly recommend, though it’s out of print and often expensive.) But speaking of Rose, I bought Old Home Town¸ by her, because I’ve never read any of her prose, and since she had such a big hand in editing the Little House books I’m curious to see how she writes.

I think that’s it. I got most of this stuff used; The Sale Annex + employee discount = BEST THING EVER. I am in geek-heaven.  

“I don’t mean to be racist, but everytime I see an Asian on line, I want to be like ‘and what kind of frappucino do you want?’”
-the B&N cafe manager (my lovely & wonderful boss)

So I’m quitting my job. After working 35 hours last week I was completely burned out, and couldn’t even concentrate on writing a paper that desperately needed to get written. There’s something unappealing about randomly crying over nothing because I’m so stressed, not eating properly and being tired all the time. Plus my job was making me increasingly bitchy and intolerable as a human (as if I’m not bad enough already)

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Hm. The espresso fumes have gotten to my brain and I have nothing to say about anything
Doing all this cafe/school stuff is turning me into an uber bitch, and a confused one at that. What day is it, where’d I put my keys, etc.

I’m going to attempt to quit my job due to the unhealthiness of it all. I’m also cheating on my live journals are whatstheword right now, but thats okay, because I also cheated on the away message rules. Hm. How incoherent.

Goal: Do less stuff next week.

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