Monday, November 22, 2010

You read what at Starbuck's?

Friday was an extremely long day. I had foolishly agreed to working a double knowing that I had my final 16 mile run to attack on Saturday morning. I know, not well thought out, but I figured it was good prep for the real thing. I plan on working the Friday before the marathon. I am used to it and want to stick to my normal activities.
The morning shift was decent. Consistent flow of people until about 4 pm. At which point, I was hoping to transfer my remaining tables to the new servers. However, I had a few tables that I wanted to keep. I didn't want to interrupt their eating to be paid. I believed they would finish soon, too.
It didn't work out the way I thought it would. I thought they would take up maybe fifteen minutes, not fifty. My window of opportunity to get out of the building was diminishing at a quick pace. I looked around and knew that the other two bartenders would be okay if I took off for fifteen minutes.
I needed coffee. I offered to bring back a few coffees to a few of my co-workers that also had worked the morning shift. There is a Barnes & Noble attached to a Starbuck's on Colorado Boulevard. It was convenient and I wanted to make it quick.
Three people were working the counter at the Starbuck's...one was taking orders, one made the espresso drinks and the other was stocking. It didn't seem busy. They were taking forever to get through the orders. I stood back and took stock of the place. There were many customers--already enjoying delicious coffee--at most of the tables. Families, ethnic groups, single people. It was 5 pm and the place was packed.
I waited more and started to get annoyed. I couldn't figure out why they didn't bring someone else over to make drinks. The girl that was making drinks was obviously not fast or efficient. She messed up a drink and took up more time fixing that than getting my drinks.
I looked around the place again. I see a blonde guy, stocky, sitting alone at a nearby table. I look at what he is leafing through and do a double take. No way is this guy looking at a nudie magazine is my thought? And, yet, he totally was. And not the normal "tasteful" Playboy. No, he had a Hustler with 8 other wrapped magazines right next to it.
Incredible. In a coffee shop? At 5 o'clock? Surrounded by families, children, ethnic groups that are anti skin revealing and you are displaying a nudie mag?
Yet, this guy remained calm in his demeanor. He looked completely at home and I knew that I was probably the only person that noticed it. Seriously, he seemed fine with what he was doing. I wonder why he felt the need to view them there? I mean, how does coffee inspire being turned on? Maybe it was an experiment like performance art? Or, a What would you do if you saw this behavior type of episode? It was a nonissue, for me, since I was on a time crunch and needed to return to work and tell everyone there about it.

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