I heart Starbucks

I love walking into any Starbucks and ordering an iced, tall, sugar-free hazlenut latte. I love even more that the person behind the register will almost never look at me like I'm crazy.

Because having worked behind the coffee counter for several years myself, I know that there are far crazier people out there with much stranger requests than the drink above. Some people might think I order oddly-specific drinks -- but having my drink the way I want it is habit from working in coffee for so long. Just imagine having an unlimited amount of coffee drink ingredients at your disposal for free. When there's downtime at work, you can experiment with drinks and find out what you truly like. Then you get used to making those personalized drinks yourself on every shift for free. Later, when you no longer work at a coffee shop, you still want the same drinks. And when you're paying someone else to make something that used to be free, you want that drink to be perfect.

I'll admit it -- I'm a coffee snob. No excuses or denial about it. Which brings me back to my original point. Not all Starbucks are made the same but the company itself is not franchised -- there are systems for everything and the company's goal is to let you have the same cup of coffee or drink however you want it anywhere there is a Starbucks in the world. Theoretically, this is true. There are Starbucks I will not go back to without careful persuasion but generally I trust any Starbucks location.

Some people hate this about Starbucks. They think that it takes away from the local coffee shops and their elusive charm. Having worked at Starbucks, the obvious big chain, and Jittery Joes, the local college-town coffee shop, I have seen both worlds. I have observed that there are pluses and minuses to both but I can't deny Starbucks efficiency. They truly do have a system for anything. There are even entire teams of people who work for the company whose sole job is to walk into the office each day and come up with better systems and more efficient ways for Starbucks employees to get things done. A better way to clean something, a faster way to make whipped cream, a new coffee roast, new pastries, a new employee login system -- you name it, they think about ways to make it better. New chairs for the dining area, a better timing system to make sure the cream is always fresh, new ways to arrange the chairs, better decorative systems. And you can see their work even if you hate Starbucks -- it is flawless when you walk in in terms of atmosphere. I feel at home at Starbucks. It's my third place (you'd have to have worked there to understand that statement.)

Plus, to understand Starbucks and the environment, you need to understand how coffee is grown. Many of the perfect coffee beans are grown in semi-shade environments. In short, Starbucks needs the rain forest to not dissapear. So for everyone I've ever heard that Starbucks is bad for the environment, know that they are dedicated to preserving their core product. The company itself may not be a protector of the environment for the right reasons, butyou can't fault the company for not paying to attention to the environment.

I know, I know, this blog entry is reading like an ad to rejuvanate Starbucks' dwindling profits, but I promise you I have no agenda. I just love Starbucks and coffe. I want to go back to Europe now that I actually drink coffee. I want to sit in all the little cafes in Italy and France and just absorb everything and write and write and write. Except I feel like I'm already too old for that. Maybe I just need to spend a few months in Europe to get that experience. Maybe I can find a way to make being in Europe a job. Everyone wants to go to Europe and just write but maybe I can find a way to actually do it.

I'm rambling. I'm only writing this because I need to practice writing. Maybe one day if I write enough I'll be a pro at editing my rambling.

General Statement to the World

I've realized as of late that my mannerisms or the way I argue or the image I portray to the world comes across as "I am never wrong." I suppose, argues the part of me that loves to give excuses, that this is in small part due to the fact that I only generally argue when I truly feel I am right, not just for argument's sake or to be right. I have so little self confidence these days but I still manage to be firm about the things I think I'm right about.

I'm rambling and this idea was so much clearer when I thought about making this post, but this is a public apology to anyone who ever thought I wasn't open to reason, listening. That is my fault -- for making you think that I thought I couldn't be wrong. This is my apology for every time I failed to listen. This is my statement that I will do my best to listen rather than dismiss the ideas or opinions of others. I can be wrong; I'm wrong a lot in my life. I try to be a good person, I try to avoid errors, I try to live my life correctly, I try not to hurt anyone else, I try to be there for my friends, I try to grow as a person, but I make mistake after mistake after mistake. I'm wrong a lot in my life.

I apologize -- I am not always right.