looking at the above charge, we can see that the grande (16 oz) brewed coffee contains a whopping 372 milligrams of caffeine (!)this is almost as much as four cans of redbull, and roughly twice as much as a grande americano, which has three shots of espresso in it.also of note: the grande “decaf” coffee has half as much caffeine as a 12 oz. can of coca-cola. at 12.7 mg, it’s more caffeine than a cup of regular tea!

Nothing seems related, these are random:

he ordered a venti™ black iced tea, unsweetened, and he instructed me to “go light on the ice, buddy“, so i did.

now, at starbucks, everything gets measured to the Nth degree, to the point of ridiculousness.

we have separate measuring cups for putting ice into tea, one for each size: tall, grande & venti™.

we also have a special plastic container used to make iced tea with — marked in such a way so that you can precisely measure the amount of brewed tea concentrate to put in, then pumps of sweetener (if any) and then water, and then ice.

assuming you filled everything up correctly, it all comes out so that it fits into the plastic “cold” cup perfectly.

but this guy told me to go light on the ice, so i did not use the venti™ ice measurer but rather the tall one.

this means there was almost half an inch of air at the top of his cup when it was all said and done.

this was not, as it turned out, what he meant by “go light on the ice”.

i handed it to him and he informed me that i was to “fill it to the fucking top” and that i should give him “a fucking break” because he had “paid two fucking dollars” for it, so i had better give him his “money’s worth”.

i smiled, apologized, took his tea back, filled the remaining half inch with brewed concentrate, walked back to him, handed it to him and told him i hoped that this was better, and told him — very sincerely — to have a wonderful afternoon.

he realized he’d been a dick and said, “thanks buddy” and walked out sheepishly.
it is tempting, in such situations, to react with anger, and i felt the impulse well up within me.

but i did not — i took half a second and realized that getting angry over this was just silly and so i went the other way, sincerely, and reacted with pleasantness.

i truly wanted to fix it for him — the poor guy just wanted a full cup of tea that he paid $2.16 for, afterall, and i was in a position to help out.

getting angry with him over it wouldn’t effect his day any, really, but it would effect mine — putting me in a sour mood (i was already fighting a headache and we were insanely busy).

so, i reacted with kindness, and was reminded of paul’s instructions to the romans in chapter 14 (i think) about revenge:

do no seek revenge, says the lord — the justice is mine to repay. instead react to anger with kindness, and in so doing it is like heaping hot coals on his head.

i was always struck by that last phrase there — wondering at paul’s felt need to tack it on.

it wasn’t enough for paul to inform the romans that christ followers were not to seek vengeance on their own, but rather to allow god to do it (a very karma kind of thought — very eastern).

instead he went on and said “by being kind it will hurt your enemy even more than if you were mean!”

uh….

is this not antithetical to the very message of kindness and forgiveness purportedly being taught?

i do not mean to imply that i think it is bad advice — as i said above, getting angry would only have ruined my day, so reacting with kindness was a better course of action.

but it do think it odd that that last phrase is in there.

assuming there’s a creator out there who cares how we treat one another, i doubt that her motive for us not seeking vengeance on our own is so that it will be like heaping hot coals on the mean person’s head.

Possibly Related

• September 25, 2007 — one-half pint potato salad
• September 25, 2007 — DECORATION FOR DECORATION’S SAKE
• September 25, 2007 — 15 mini candy bars
• September 25, 2007 — two bowls microwave popcorn
• September 24, 2007 — No Impact Man: The No Impact Philosophy

i have never had a job with less downtime — WOW is it busy, the entire damn time.

it’s hell of fun though.

the register is not nearly as overwhelming to run as i had feared — the interface is actually very well designed (even if it is clunky looking, being DOS-based) — and i am catching on quickly to being able to translate the customers’ random squawks into drink orders that likely resemble something like they were expecting to taste.

my drawer ended up being $200.00 over, however, which is the amount of money a drawer is supposed to start at, so clearly something went kinda wrong, and it wasn’t my fault.

and now i’m sitting at the kitchen table listening to the dryer suck the water out of my work clothes, and the sound is soothing for the puppy, and i feel pretty great right now.

HORRAY!!

Possibly Related

• September 25, 2007 — one-half pint potato salad
• September 25, 2007 — DECORATION FOR DECORATION’S SAKE
• September 25, 2007 — 15 mini candy bars
• September 25, 2007 — two bowls microwave popcorn
• September 24, 2007 — No Impact Man: The No Impact Philosophy

yeee-hah.

:-/

while it is nice, after almost a month of putting in applications, to finally be starting a job, it is daunting to be faced with the fact that for the first time in almost two years i will now have a schedule to stick to, work-wise.

i just entered my first weeks schedule into my calendar, and — as promised — i am working forty hours.

let’s see, at seven dollars an hour that’s…

depressing.

the benefits, once they kick in (in 90 days) are fantastic, though. and my manager (sheesh, it’s like i’m 20 again) seems conscientious and pleasant. and starbucks, even if it is a big corporation, is at least a moral one, who takes care of their employees, takes care of their growers and while i’d rather be working for a little indie coffeeshop somewhere, i need the benefits and in this country that means going with a corporation, unless you get very lucky.

also, i went to bed just after the third quarter last night, but i assume that the game didn’t change pace much, and it seems like green bay kicked some major ass last night in the snow.

i want it to snow here, too.

come on winter!

Possibly Related

• September 25, 2007 — one-half pint potato salad
• September 25, 2007 — DECORATION FOR DECORATION’S SAKE
• September 25, 2007 — 15 mini candy bars
• September 25, 2007 — two bowls microwave popcorn
• September 24, 2007 — No Impact Man: The No Impact Philosophy