Everything's Going to Hell, and We're Still Serving Coffee!

Today I woke up much earlier than I should have considering the time that I went to bed the night before. Staying awake for a full 24 hours proved to be much more difficult to do than I thought it would be. Yesterday I had what is known to be the second worst shift possible--the 4am-1pm shift. Ugh. This time slot literally hurts to look at when one looks over their schedule. The only shift that's worse is the 4am-1pm SATURDAY shift, because hell rains down upon any barista that works on Saturdays in Newtown!

I remember back in the beginning of the week, when I saw my schedule for the first time. Looking at my schedule has become almost painful lately. Walking down the death row and into the back room with my pumpkin spice latte in hand, I tried to brace myself for impact. I looked for key times like 4am or 12pm to help me get a better idea of when I would be working. Of course I knew in the back of my mind that none of these times were really concrete. I was sure that in a day or two I would get a call and have to go in on the day I have off. I was sure that I wouldn't really be getting off at 3, but rather at 5. Such has become normal. I have more hours next week than any other barista, and even some of the supervisors!

The worst part is, I really don't know why it has gotten so crazy lately! I can't seem to figure it out! I mean...yea sure, some of the hype can be attributed to the fact that we remodeled the store and everyone wants to check it out. But we re-opened a good 3 or 4 weeks ago. Probably even longer than that! Surely the hype has died down a bit! It's like there's a never ending line, and you never get a chance to catch a breath, let alone prepare for the next wave of coffee-hungry rich folk. There has to be something else that's going on! Unless the population of Newtown increased by like a thousand in the two weeks we were closed.

Another two people quit today. One of them was a supervisor who had been with the company for over twenty years, but just couldn't handle how crazy its been. That makes at least 6 or 7 people who quit in the past 2 or 3 weeks. I can't say for sure what the count is up to now, because I've honestly lost track. And of course every time someone quits, it gets more hectic for the rest of us! Not to mention that both the manager and one of the two assistant managers is leaving the store to go somewhere else!

We now have a list next to the cash register of things we've run out of, so we don't accidentally charge someone for something we can't make. Strawberries, Frappicchino Creme base, Apple Juice, Mango Juice, bananas, oatmeal and even the mix for the new hot chocolates that we're advertising like crazy! The list gets bigger every day, and of course the order that comes in never seems to have what we need. Who knows, we might be down to serving only coffee soon! A Starbucks selling coffee? Unheard of!

But alas, complaining gets me nowhere. If nothing else, I'm making a lot of money lately. I made at least double the money in tips this week than I normally do. It's always nice to see the rich people are still pouring in by the dozens! And the assistant manager who is sticking around seems to be trying to take control of the problem. He was at the store today from 7am until midnight. Dole bless him! I think I would probably die from that!

Other than that, I can't think of anything to really blog about. Sorry again folks for talking about work...it seems to be the only thing I blog about anymore! Between school and work, I'm certainly kept busy, which hopefully explains why I skipped my blog last week...and yesterday! It seems the food blog is also losing a little bit of momentum lately, so I figured that despite the fact that it's almost 3am, I would write something real quick rather than skip again!

Oh yea! I almost forgot! I went to Neshaminy homecoming today with my good pal Erik, and it was a blast and a half! We didn't stay very long, but it really wasn't as exciting as other years seeing as there weren't very many familiar faces floating around seeing as we're graduated. Whew! Run-on sentence! We did run into a few special guests like Hank Curry, Mrs. Donahue, fellow blogger Meredith, the Troll(ugh), and of course Dr. Hensel!! We checked in with everyone and headed home remembering those good ol' Neshaminy moments. I had to go to work shortly after, but I already got into that so I'll just stop here!

Breakfast: Sleeeeeeeepppppppp

Lunch: Something? It was definitely something...something along the lines of funnel cakes and cheese fries, and other assorted homecoming goodies.

Dinner: The assistant manager at work lost his mind seeing as he had been there since 7 in the morning, and consequently he got us all pizza. Pretty good pizza too!

Till next time folks!