Dawn Xiana Moon: Melodic folk pop infused with passion and honesty. From Chicago.

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Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Yes, it has been a while.

So I'm finally posting after perhaps the longest absence of writing on this thing in approximately two years (for the second birthday of this blog is coming in the next two weeks). Apologies to all of my faithful readers (if you haven't all abandoned me--a month is an eternity on the net); take comfort in the fact that after such a long habit I'm not likely to quit anytime soon, even if the posts are delayed from time to time.

Speaking of time, I've been a Starbucks tool for the last few weeks and am likely to continue until September, when I plan return to Paris for a year (or possibly stay in Ann Arbor working for University Reformed Church as a worship leader/musician/arts person, among other things--who knows?). Yes, I've become a cog in the corporate machine. Starbucks has been an interesting place to work, although it's shortened my vocabulary. Half of my daily word allowance now consists of "thank you." It's company policy (and corporate does check on this periodically) for the register person to make eye contact and say "thank you" to the customer; the bar person must also make eye contact and say "thank you" when handing over a drink. So imagine this: throughout the course of a shift, I essentially tell customers, "Thank you for giving me your money, thank you for letting me give you your change, thank you for letting me give you your coffee, thank you for letting me give you your pastry, thank you for letting me give you your espresso drink." A customer could literally be thanked five times in one visit to the counter. As you can see, it gets a bit ridiculous, and one finds it entirely too easy to automatically respond with thanks anytime one is giving or taking anything from anyone at all.

But as an email posted on the bulletin board in the back room says (in regard to partners getting--or not getting--free drinks), "Remember, the only thing free at Starbucks are smiles." Votes for making that the new slogan?

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