I Used To Be A Barista

I went for my normal walk this morning...to the bank, and then to a few other places. I needed to change my mailing address for one of those states-y types of paperwork in which you need a notary to verify who you are before you sign it and mail it in...

Of course my bank's notary was not there today, and the other woman there who has her stamp, is in the process of getting a new stamp because she got married and has to have her new last name on the stamp. I told her if she would have just stayed single she would have made my life easier!

So then I walked to a nearby drive-up bank. I walked into the little lobby, waited five minutes, only to be told I'd have to walk further to the main building to find a notary.

As I kept walking, I passed a Law Office and next door is a UPS store in which I needed to go into anyways.

I thought, "...do I go into this strange looking law office..surely they must have a notary..or do I try the UPS store where I have to go anyways in the liklihood that I'll have to backtrack to the law office or reroute to the main building of the second bank..."

I decided to try out the Law Office. Sure enough the secretary is a notary. But a crotchety, old, secretary. As I laid out my paperwork and driver's license and Mastercard (you know so she could see clearly that I am who I claim to be)...she says, "is your license your current address?"

I've moved several times so of course it's not my current address.

She has to hassle me and ask me why it's not my current address for a good ten minutes.

Finally, I leaned in to her and said, "It's really rather complicated as to why my address isn't current. I walked here, I live close, I live at this very address on this paper, do I need to go home and get you a piece of mail before you'll stamp this???"

And she smiles and says, "No. That's fine. I'll sign and stamp this for you."

Now, I wonder...why would you go about wasting my time hassling me through a good length of questioning if only to end up signing and stamping my paper anyways?

So I go to the UPS store to buy the box I needed next, only to see upon entering a large sign that read, 'NOTARY'. Great. "I could have just come here," I thought to myself.

I told the owner of the UPS store and his sales clerks the headache I just went through next door and they met my story with laughter, "Oh yeah..you should have just come here! He (meaning the owner) would have notarized your paper without any hassle! But that sounds just like her nextdoor!"

And they all exchanged looks and continued with their chuckling.

If only I had been the wiser to start.

After that fiasco, I decided I needed a mocha.

I headed in to the Starbucks and ordered my usual and followed it up with some regular coffee 'house' chit chat. Asked how much their travel thermus held and the barista and myself complained that a thermus that only holds a 'tall' amount of coffee is ridiculous...

I finished up my chat with her and headed over to the barista station where my masterpiece was being created in all of its coffee glory...

The barista behind the machine was extremely happy and cheerful so I said, "Gosh, you must have gotten a good night's sleep last night...you're so energetic!"

"Oh yeah!! I'm in a great mood! I don't have to work today!"

"No work? But you're at work, no?"

"This isn't work! This is just fun!"

And honestly, I had to agree with him, "Yeah, I know what you mean. I used to barista a few years ago...and let me tell you, I had the honor of giving a woman her very first caffeinated drink!"

At this point, the guy was a bit shocked to hear that a woman who had never touched caffeine would step into a coffee house, "Oh wow, I bet she was zooming!"

"To say the least, but not even thirty seconds after she was handed her first mocha, she begged for a second!"

Truly, I am not even exaggerating there.

"And after she finished her second drink in a relatively fast manner, she asked for a third! But, I refused to give her a third...told her to wait a bit and if she really wanted another one later, I'd buy it for her..."

The guy chuckled, and that woman came back later thanking me for denying her a third. She said she had such a caffeine rush she was hurting later on.

So the guy asks, "So...what "house" did you work at?"

Like I'm part of some Starbucks Family. But actually, I didn't work at a 'Starbucks'...

"Oh, I barista'd at The Daily Grind Cyber Cafe. It was a lot of fun, but it's been a few years now since I've worked there...I'm doing different things now like being a Mommy full time and would rather just come here and chit chat and drink."

So a 'few' really meant 'nearly a decade', but what does he care?

"No way!! You barista'd there?!"

This response was nothing I expected.

So I guess, I was a barista....in a really cool place...but I just worked there for the interaction with people and the good times and craziness it brought to my daily life.

And for the yummy coffee know-how I kept after leaving that job...for which my husband thanks me.