Seriously? What is so important that you have to talk on the phone at full volume while you are in line and then whisper your order to me, only to return to your conversation while looking at me like you are annoyed because I am asking you to pay?
HTD (here’s the deal). If you are on the phone, step aside and finish your conversation so that the person/people behind you can order. Or better yet, hang up. It’s simple really. Otherwise, your cell phone conversation looks like a big middle finger in my face.
So here’s what I’m going to do as this continues: While you are having your conversation after you order, I am going to call your order to the barista (as required of me) only I will do it at a slightly louder volume than usual. I will also tell you how much you owe me, only again I will do this at a slightly louder (but still courteous) volume. Yes, I realize that this will annoy you, but really, isn’t this what you are doing to me and others?
So Mr/Mrs/Ms Cell Phone user, I ask this of you. Please hang up and order, or let others after you order first.
This was inspired by a lady I saw at Starbucks one day. I wanted to share this letter that I wrote with everybody to let you know what kind of friend I can be. I care too much about all my friends to let this happen to them, as I hope you do also. If you know the kind of person being described here, please pass this on to them. enjoy!
2/27/09
Dear Friend,
I won’t let you grow old with you believing that you are younger than you truly are. Talking and dressing like you are 40 going on 20. Eventually, it might become embarassing.
Low rise jeans with muffin tops or Abercrombie fashion on a JC Penny body. Faux hawks at 50 and puka shell chokers choking out the last bit of sense that you might have.
Front butts playing peekaboo out the bottom of camisols and beer guts in a wife beater are never sexy. Both seem to reveal denial and freshly inked tribal tattoos.
Fake tans and highlighted hair make for an interesting contrast. Not intersting like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, but more like Michael Jackson and Priscilla Presley.
So it comes to this: I promise as your friend to inform you rather than embarrass you if this happens to you. I would rather inform you than allow you to become red in the face. I would hope that you do the same for me. Let us grow old and move forward rather than trying to deny the inevitable. Growing old is a rite of passage and it is for you and me.
Starbucks announced that they will give money this holiday season to the (red) campaign. Seriously, didn’t this happen already? Isn’t everybody done with the (red) campaign? Of course, it’s a good thing, as St. Arbucks will donate .05 cents from every holiday trio sold (Gingersnap Latte, Peppermint Twist Mocha, and the Eggnog Latte), but what if instead they said they will donate all procedes from the holiday trio sold on one day? I am sure more people would be on board for this. Maybe Uncle Howie should have been on board two years ago when the (red) campaign was relevant.
The idea of community is wierd. What is community really? Is it the place that you live in? Or is it the company that you keep around you? We have a strange community emerging within the last five years or so with MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and even as you read this blog entry we are engaging in some sort of faux community.
We have our home community in which we live in a neighborhood. This is our direct community. Sometimes we try to block out this community by building fences around our homes, to which only those who are invited may enter. This home community is quite tricky, because none of us truly want to invite others into our lives usually. Sometimes I find myself inside of my home with the blinds drawn and the lights off so that nobody thinks I am home. We seclude ourselves so that we never have to speak to others, but really we are missing out on the community that we crave.
We also have our work community (neighborhood) in which we go and punch the clock. Sometimes we get so caught up in how much our job sucks that we forget the impact that we might have on people. Sometimes when working at the church, I feel like a jukebox playing the songs that people like or dislike. I feel like I am there to play the hits, but then something changes. I see somebody standing and truly worshipping. Those are the moments that my work community is at its best: when I’ve led somebody to a place of happiness, or they are touched by Jesus. The same thing happens when I work at starbucks. Sometimes I see people who are regulars coming in as I am leaving and they say things like, “you can’t leave, who will make my drink for me?” Though they may not be complimenting me, I feel that I am touching their lives in some way. Though I leave somedays hating people more than one man should, I know that Jesus loves them even more than I hate them.
I think this is the purpose of community. True community is the effect that you have on other people’s lives. Whether you are living around them, serving them at your job, or even seeing them on the same bus everyday, true community is formed when they notice you aren’t there anymore. When people start to miss you, then you know that you have formed community.
There were a few closures in Washington, but none of the Bellingham Stores were on “The List”. Click here if you want to see what stores were closed. At a quick glance, I think the most starbucks closed were in Texas. Don’t fret though. As far as we know, Uncle Howie takes care of his employees. The workers are supposed to find work at the Starbucks across the street.
The sun is out, and that is why I haven’t been blogging in a while. Up here in the Pacific Northwest, when the sun is out you need to take advantage of it. If you don’t, you have no right to complain about the rain.
This Fourth of July found me working at the Bucks and then hanging with friends. It was quite a war zone, as I am sure it was in your town. Fireworks going off everywhere, and I had to work at 4:30 the next morning. Needless to say, there was no beer drinking this year.
THis year was also the first time in a long time I didn’t return to Blaine, WA for the Annual Fourth of July Celebration. I actually quite enjoy the Fourth of July in a small town. They have a parade where most people in town know somebody in the parade. There is usually a dog parade, a real estate agent in a Drop Top Chevy Camaro from the 90’s, AAU and middle school sports teams celebrating their victorious season, and the High School band marching through. This year found a band called the Clumsy Lovers playing. This was a big step for Blaine to bring in a national touring act to entertain before the fireworks.
I’ve been working quite a bit. Between RCC, Starbucks, Guitar Lessons, and trying to hang out with people, I have not been inside too often. I’ve grown quite a bit as a barista actually. I can sling drinks pretty quickly these days.
Cynthia’s belly is getting bigger. She is quite adorable. She’s outgrown all of her clothes and now is beginning to wear maternity clothes! It’s a bit crazy and funny at the same time. We have our second appointment this week, but we wont find out the sex until next month.
I went to a songwriters forum this past week with other worship leaders from around Bellingham. It was quite nice. I am building a relationship with Sean Hall. Sean is a enormously talented singer/songwriter who used to play in a band called Day Dreamer here in bellingham. I enjoy his ideas and songs. If you go to my music Myspace link on the side, Day Dreamer are one of my “top friends”.
I’ve also begun to write and record again. Hopefully, I will have some new songs posted for you to listen to soon. Not so much worship songs, but more so on the “artistic” side. I guess from the worship angle of things, they would be seen as artistic rather than accesible.
Lastly, I am a bit upset that the Sonics went to Oklahoma City. Not that they were stellar, but I am a traditionalist. Change scares me, even if it is better for somebody. Who wins in this situation? I couldn’t really tell you…
That’s all I’ve got for you as far as updates lately. I promise that I will be more consistant, I just needed a little break with the world going crazy around me!
As I sit here next to you in Starbucks, you cannot imagine how much I envy you and your life. So much time on your hands and so little to do with it. Really, you think that you are “hella-busy”, but you’re not. And though I could talk you through this part of your life, what I would like to talk about is public hygiene. Specifically your cologne.
You see my friend, cologne is not like water. You don’t literally splash it on. You don’t hold it an inch from your chest and squirt. Instead, cologne should be misted and walked through. Cologne is an intimate scent, not something for anybody within 5-10 feet of you to smell. Please High Schooler, I beg of you, quit making the air so pungent when you walk by. People would rather smell fresh air than your cologne.
One more thing before I leave you. Please understand that Axe body spray is in no way a good thing. In fact, I think it may make your skin break out more than it already has. If you are wearing Axe in an attempt to “grow up” then consider this: nobody over the age of 16 wears Axe because it smells like A$$. In fact, I think that is what they should have called it.
Hoping that our next meeting is more pleasant to my scent of smell,
To help me get to know people better at St. Arbucks I work at and for simple team building, I’ve started bringing in CD’s for them to borrow. What happens is that they let me know what they like and I get to listen to their music also. I brought in four CD’s to start it off:
Amos Lee – Amos Lee
Rocky Votolato – Makers
Glen Hansard – The Soundtrack to “Once”
and a Death Cab Mix that I put together.
Well, my new friend Diana (If you ever visit my Starbucks, she is the one with the faux-hawk) brought me a copy of Bon Iver’s “For Emma, Forever ago”. Holy Crap! This CD is great! You need to listen to this. Here is a taste below:
Have you seen this movie? It’s a Documentary following Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir as they tour the nation looking to stop Christmas Consumerism amongst americans. It’s on the Netflix Instant Watch but you can also put it into your queue. I think I saw Jim Wallis is in this movie also. Definitely a Film for Thought movie at Roosevelt Community Church toward the end of the year! Check out the trailer below. If you saw it, what did you think?
Me: I loved it. It was a great and interesting look into american consumerism with a comedic twist. I never really figured out if the reverend or anybody was really “christian”. Somebody in the movie described it as being involved in activism in a fun and different way. Watch as the group takes their message across the country with a stop at Walmart Headquarters to excercise demons and also takes their message to the Mall of America and Disneyland. If you see this movie, check out Walmart: the High Price of Low Cost also.
Brent over at InWorship jumped on board with this and set out the weight loss challenge for fellow bloggers and people in ministry. I think that its funny how the most overweight people are working in either minstry or health care…two people who tell you that your body is a temple and how to take care of it.
So here we go! I, in typical Hawaiian fashion, have simply been continuing to gain weight and put this challenge off for later. Well, later started today. Here are the Brown Kid’s stats for you:
I’m 6′ 1″. I weigh 217 lbs. My chest 45″ and my waist is 42 1/2″. I would post a picture, but I don’t want to make the ladies stumble (that’s a joke).
So I see a pattern developing in myself that I seem to have a comfort zone of 215-220. I hope to get down to 205 before or by september-ish. It doesn’t help that I work at St. Arbucks and am surrounded by deliciousness of the “Reduced Fat” Strawberries and Cream Coffee Cake…and caramel Machiatos…and Grande Hazelnut and Vanilla Lattes…and strawberries and cream blended creams…and, oh who am I kidding, I want to put it all in my mouth because it’s all good. So here is what I am going to do. While I am working out and eating healthy, I will only drink black coffee and unsweetened black Iced teas. Also, no sweets until the cheat days. Yes, I said cheat days. It will be my day of free for all eating so I don’t go crazy.
