Two-Hundred Degree Milk : 08.03.03 @ 5:52 pm

Have any of you ever wondered what happens if you leave the milk to steam on the espresso bar too long? Probably not, but I�ll tell you anyway:
It boils over and up until the entire bar is covered in scaled, 200 degree milk..

But let me rewind a bit and tell the whole exasperating story that is my day.

Last night I closed the store. Which means I came home around quarter of ten, then went to bed around quarter of eleven.
I had one of those nights that is spent staring at the ceiling until three am, when your mind finally throws in the towel with an exhausted sigh.
My alarm went off at 5:15. I had to open the store at 6am.
My manager only scheduled two people to work the Sunday morning shift. I don�t know if you�ve been in a Starbucks on a Sunday morning, but four people would have a hard time doing a decent job during this time.
Like I said, there was only two. And my manager is not a barista (or a manager for that matter, but that�s a different gripe). He can not call drinks, he can�t make them properly, and when you tell him he�s making something wrong he doesn�t believe you and continues to make them wrong and gets miffed that you told him so.
So basically it was just me. I was doing fine, had my own system that was doing quite well. Then said manager forgot to call a few drinks, I messed up on two grande skim extra hot w/whip caramel macchiato (Well. At least he said it didn�t taste right, I did it by the book.)... and my system, my own little groove, was completely messed up. The drinks kept piling up, I was running out of milk, there wasn�t enough room on the counter for the drinks, the milk, or anything... people were starting to get pissed and the freaking manager is calling Frappuccinos to me. IT�S NOT THE JOB OF THE BARISTA ON THE BAR TO MAKE FRAPPES. Not only that, but I had like sixteen or more hot drinks to make. If you want me to make f&%�n frappes, fine I will, but not when I�m this backed up and only if you ask.
In making extra hot drinks, the milk boiled over twice. And you can�t serve a customer 200+ degree milk without a lawsuit (that and burned milk is icky) so that means I had to re-steam the whole pitcher again, which takes more time and causes even more of a delay.
All this on two hours of sleep.

Needless to say, by the end of this I was ready to beat my manager over the head with the milk pitcher and then shoot myself.

I completely understand it when a customer gets... irritated... about things like this. I would too. But I would also be a little more understanding when it�s obvious that everything is going wrong and the poor barista looks like she�s going to scream, cry, or both, and she�s [the barista] is apologizing profusely and giving out free beverage certificates if a drink is messed up on top of the delay in drinks.

So I�m relived to be out of work. My next day off isn�t until Tuesday (when I�m going to see Pirates of the Caribbean again with Kelly & Meredith), and what a sweet day off it will be.

In other, non-Starbucks related news, I bought myself a digital camera on semi-impulse. I only decided which one I wanted the other night and today I withdrew the money from my account and purchased it. It�s a Nikon Coolpix 2100 (2.0 million pixels) and I already know I�ll like it for what I�m using it for. I could never use it for fine art photography, but that�s not what I got it for anyway, I got it for snap shots and stuff. You know, regular family and friends bull shit.
(My Nikon FM 10 SLR is named Jocelyn, this new camera has been dubbed Angelina after Jolie).

The car that I always drive is a 1996 Forrest Green Grande Jeep Cherokee. I love it, it�s become my baby. It�s not actually my car though, even though I drive it more then my Dad. The other day I was appalled to realize that he has put two American flags on the car. Stickers, not just magnets, stickers. The smaller one doesn�t irritate me, but the bigger one is right dead center of the rear window, which obscures my view when I back up. That and is there really that much need to be that patriotic? I feel like taking one of my rainbow stickers, the one that�s in the American Flag theme, and sticking it on the back of the car.
But like I said, it isn�t my car. I don�t even pay gas (though I should). So I don�t feel like stirring up an argument about that, because they�d be right (isn�t that mature of me?).

/A

Drink of the Day: Quad Grande Six-pump Soy Toffee Nut Latte

<< // >>

index | older | diaryland