Brew Reconstruction; Quick Recovery; Soul Coughing

So The Brew is under construction. We're working out some technological kinks I'll be reposting August and July this month, and hopefully two more months in October.

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So I had pretty stressful day today at the Coffee Chain That Shall Remain Nameless. Afterwards, I wanted to get some booze, go home, and take a nap. I had overslept and was late to work that morning. So many other things happened to make the day trying: someone not showing up for work; more crazy yuppies wanting their coffee earlier on a Saturday morning; people wanting lots of boxes and 2.5 gallon cambros of coffee; etc.

I was able to manage everything pretty well. People didn't have to wait a ridiculous amount of time for coffee or their cambros. Trouble employees weren't as much trouble during the day. We avoided major blunders and still had our wits about us. The store was still standing when I left in the early afternoon.

And I was okay. I didn't have as much of a need to drink half a six-pack and then doze off on the couch when I got back to my apartment. So instead, I got a couple shots of Crown Royal on the rocks and finished watching Collateral. When the movie ended, I was pleasingly calm and somewhat refreshed.

This seemed to be one of the quickest recoveries from a stressful day I've ever had. I didn't want to lounge around anymore or even have more Crown Royal. One of the first thoughts I had was to do some more writing. Maybe finish that short story about a barista enjoying his last day working at a coffee chain named MilkyWayGreenbacks. I could write another scene in that novel. I could work on another piece for the writing group at my church.

It's cool to realize that you can recover better than you thought. It makes you feel more mature and well-adjusted.

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I've been discovering Soul Coughing, a now defunct alt band from the 90s, though frontman Mike Doughty is still doing solo work. They've got some great, random, obscure songs, like the Coffee Song and Buddha Rhubarb Butter. Tried to find vids on YouTube but with no luck. They're still worth listening too.

Why Teach? on The Brew; Scary liquor stores; Seraphim Falls

I just posted September's first article, "Why I'm Still A Teacher" by new author Gayle Amato. It's a great look at what education really is and where The Brew fits in in the educational process.

There are still a few kinks to get worked out, as you may notice when you look for September's editorial, which has disappeared. Such is the joy of Internet publishing. But fear not, for my editorial writing prowess will be able to be viewed once again (and will make look Gayle's article look all the better) when this one of many hiccups is fed a good spoonful of peanut butter.

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I've come to love scary-looking liquor stores. I went to one in a predominately Hispanic neighborhood in Dallas where two black men were sitting outside and asking for money and beer. An Asian and a Phillipino man manned the counter inside. When I walked in, looking as white as can be in cargo shorts and a polo, I think I did my part to celebrate racial diversity. Or is it unity? All races are brought together through a liquor store?

To make it even more ethnic, I was on a mission for Gallo beer, which is made in Guatemala. I found this beer at a store similar to the one mentioned above while living in Chicago. I knew that my only hope would be to check out random, ramshackle stores which might carry it.

I was let down when I didn't see Gallo. But instead I found Tona (there should be an 'enye' in that name but this blog couldn't translate that symbol), a beer from Nicaragua.

Oh, man. I almost forgot about Gallo when I downed this smooth but somehow crisp delight. My curiosity was rewarded and now I'm not so sure if Gallo is the best Latin American beer I've had.

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I watched Seraphim Falls this weekend and was wowed as James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) was chased through the southwest by Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson). Both played ex-Civil War generals who had some unfinished business. Great cat and mouse film with some very surprising moments.

Brosnan should get an award for best use of a horse as a cloaking device in this film. That's all I'm gonna say about that, otherwise, I'll spoil the best surprise of the movie.

Continuous Learning On The Brew; Talledega what?!

I posted September's editorial on The Brew. Read it and feel more educated.

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I watched Talladega Nights last night. I guess I was expecting more laughs. I laughed at the intro of Will Ferrel's character but then didn't laugh until the commercial interruption of the longest crash ever.

I was amazed at what a huge production the movie was. But then I realized that every second of film time was prime time for product placement. And boy, did they ever place products. Now the elaborate crash sequences and numerous cameos began to make more financial sense. Even Fig Newtons got in on the action (I chuckled at that joke).

Another Round of The Brew; Jogging the Mind and Useless Knowledge

So The Brew is finally back up! We'll be working to repost all past articles over the next few months as well as move into September's Education Issue.

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So I was running today around my expansive apartment complex when running towards me was a guy I was an RA with while at Moody in Chicago. Now, being a Bible school graduate and still running in Christian circles, it's a reality that I'll always run into people who will jog my memory of college. So this was no surprise for me.

This may have been a surprise for this guy, who noticed me but may not have recognized me. Perhaps his mind had been sprinting through his workout and didn't have time to stop for a breather to remember way back when. I didn't become short of breath when I realized that he wouldn't say 'Hey' so I said, "How's it going?" as he ran by.

No response.
No biggie. I wasn't on any marathon to get every person I ever went to school with to remember me.

On a different note, I had some boosts and edits when it comes to my useless movie knowledge.

I went to a midnight showing of Pulp Fiction at a sort of artsy theater near my new store. I figured most of my friends wouldn't have been able to handle going to a midnight movie, much less Pulp Fiction at midnight, so I went with some friends from the Coffee Chain That Shall Remain Nameless.

Before the film, which didn't get over till 2:45 a.m., they had some trivia for free movie passes and for a collector's edition DVD of the movie. While I was debating if I wanted a copy of the film that made Quentin Tarantino famous, they started the trivia.

"Which three Tarantino films feature characters eating Big Kahuna burgers?" People started raising their hands and belting out all of the movies. Four people got the answer wrong and, by this time, seeing that Tarantino only has around six or seven major films out there, someone else figured it out pretty quickly.

I was lost on this, and the next question. "Vincent Vega's character in Pulp Fiction is related to which character in Reservoir Dogs?" I've yet to see Dogs so I had to let someone else get the DVD.

But the next day, I was playing Scene It with the college group from my church and am a little ashamed to say that I dominated there. I picked out a picture of Sigourney Weaver from Ghostbusters and picked the movie Silence of The Lambs from these three clues: Size 16 dress, fava beans, and Clarice.

And now I'm also in a race against two other guys from my college group on Facebook's Never-Ending Movie Quiz.

All this makes me wonder what I would do if I didn't have all this useless movie knowledge.

Call PR!; The King

So I had a legendary moment while working at the Coffee Chain That Shall Remain Nameless today.

The new Fall promotion began today, and so did the push for employees to sell more whole bean coffee. All the machines were also marked down to closeout prices. I happened to be wearing my newly re-acquired Coffee Master apron, which if I were writing a PR piece, would be a symbol of my hard work and dedication to the Coffee Chain's values and beliefs.

Throughout my morning shift, I sold three pounds of coffee to various customers. Now I could attribute this to my looking like I knew something about coffee with the aforementioned apron, which is fancier than normal aprons and black. And I could write how I was setting the example of coffee excellence by not only wearing the Coffee Master Apron, but also selling more than my fair share of beans in one day. Or I could attribute it to being at the right place at the right time, namely behind a register.

Later on in the day, a customer called asking if my store had a pricey espresso machine (normally $1,400 but marked down to $449). I happily said, "Well, yes, I think we do. I can put it aside for you..."

That was very good news to my ears and to the customer's. Apparently, she had to call around to four different stores to find the machine. She and others had chipped in to buy the machine as a wedding present for some happy newlywed couple that would be so happy to have the machine. I helped the customer out to her car with the machine (it's probably 20 lbs or so) and she told me how happy she was to find this. After I put the machine in her car.

She was elated and then gave me a hug before she drove away. Now if this were some puff piece, I might say that I was proud to wear that black apron today. I could say that this was all in a day's work for a Coffee Chain That Shall Remain Nameless Coffee Master. Maybe I could speculate as to how my would not have been as good if I had not worn that apron.

But luckily, for you, this isn't a PR fluff article, and this is the end of the story.

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I watched The King over the weekend.

Very disturbing. I guess it was a very accurate portrayal of evil? I'm not sure how to take this film. Don't know if there's anything here besides good acting and style that's redeemable.

A Real Blog Update; Interesting News

Since The Brew is still down, I've some extra time on my hands. And so I thought, why not produce a real blog update? So here's some of the banal stuff I never put up on here when I have more important things to post.

The Brew is still down.

My new running shoes (bought before the car sucked all my money away) are working great. Ran about a mile and a half this afternoon around White Rock Lake (a beautiful lake and park in east Dallas) and loved it. I didn't do more because it was 95 degrees while I ran.

My two new roommates are both teachers at a small Christian school and are back to an early to bed, early to rise schedule. Whenever I close at The Coffee Chain That Shall Remain Nameless, I get up too late to see them (7:30 a.m.) and come home too late to see them (9:30-10 p.m.). It's like I've got a two bedroom all to myself.

I tried the new blueberries and cream 'beverage' with shots of espresso blended in. I woulda thought it'd be nasty, but I'm hooked now. It's really good.

I'm reading through The Man Who Was Thursday by Chesterton for the classics club at my church. It's great. When The Brew gets back to normal, I'll refer you to a great article about this book in the January issue by my bud Kevin.

I ate black beans and rice for dinner tonight. I'll probably eat the same thing tomorrow night again, since I have a new, my-car-sucked-all-my-money-away budget.

I can't go see Muse when they come to Dallas in September (again, the budget). But, MuteMath will be back here in November at the smoke-free House Of Blues. Hoorah.

My family decided to host another exchange student this year. So when I go home for Thanksgiving, I'll have a 16-year-old brother from China named Teng.

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Here's some interesting news stories I found this last week:

Aquafina bottled water comes straight from the tap.

Some messiness where TV journalism crosses the line into invasion of privacy and why NBC's Dateline program is in hot water because of their 'To Catch a Predator' series.

Tears of Joy

So I nearly cried during church this morning. I think it was for a couple of reasons.
There was a lot of stuff happening that had built to a climax and it just came together during one of the most refreshing worship services I’ve been to in a long time.

That service was at my church but was different than usual because the associate pastor, who was recently put in charge of structuring the worship service, preached today. In all honesty, this associate pastor is one of the main reasons that I stayed at my church. It was great to worship in the service he put together and then also hear him preach. And that last sentence might be the first time I’ve used ‘worship’ to describe something that I’ve done, rather than some nebulous concept.

What made this moment so encouraging and humbling was my past week. Earlier in the week, some hackers broke into the server that hosts The Brew, my online magazine, and did some royal technical damage (Here is what it looks like now). My friend, who takes care of the technical side of The Brew, told me that we might have to restart the magazine. This could mean that I would have to repost and re-enter all the articles and author profiles from the last ten months. We’d be pretty much starting over.

About the same time, my ’99 Hyundai Elantra decided to start overheating. I had some people from church check it out and we tried some small solutions to fix it, though they ultimately didn’t work. So I took my car, which has survived three 1,000-mile, cross country drives, in to the shop to get fixed. They told me that I needed a new water pump and thermostat. They also needed to replace my timing belt, which they said they had to replace after removing it (in order to replace the water pump). The boss at the Meineke store I took my car to told me that he would eat the cost of the belt (including the labor, which was over $70/hr) because he had already had to call me once to add on more parts/charges.

More than $600 later, my car was working, but I had to adjust my plans for a ‘mystery outing’ for the college group that I help out with. I cancelled the dinner I had planned and instead planned to go to a coffee house that had bad coffee but good live music. And for a while, I wasn’t sure anyone would come, because I hadn’t heard any response. I was almost ready to have no one show up and be ready to do something else that night.
But lo and behold, at the set time, they show up and we have a very cool night.

I got to thinking about all the problems that came up this week and the some of the wrong thoughts that came up. A good friend of mine kept calling throughout the week to see how I was doing because he knew of my past with depression. And then I realized how all the strife of this week could have crippled me or sent me into a depressive state. I could have thought that I was overwhelmed with all that was going wrong. I could have thought that I was stuck and helpless to do anything.

But what happened instead: people from my church were very willing to help me with my car. Guys from a church-less Bible study I go to kept checking on me to see how I was doing and offer encouragement. I saw how community works. I saw how the church should work. And I saw how car troubles or magazine glitches didn’t set me off like they could have.

So I guess that is rolling with the punches. Or maturing. Or getting even further down the road from things that could bring back depression.

And that is definitely something that warrants tears of joy.

Brouhaha on The Brew; Texas Heat

So someone hacked into the server that hosts The Brew, which is currently unable to be viewed. Our large technical staff of 1 is working to move The Brew onto a different server and fix whatever problems happened when the hacks hacked in. We should have it all back together pretty soon.

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The full force of a Texas summer is here. So far, most of this summer has been cooler, due to almost constant rain showers. But the showers have cleared up and let in the heat, bringing the temps back to normal, with highs of 104 and 105 (without the heat index).

So I'm getting used to sweating through most of my clothes and having to wash them all the more.

The heat is also taking it's toll on my car, conditioned in the icy winters of Illinois. This week my '99 Hyundai decided to start overheating. I'm pretty sure it's something with the engine coolant system because I keep shoving water and coolant into my car, with no visible effects.

Luckily, I mass texted people I knew down here and found out someone from church knows cars (and also bought a new Hyundai recently). The guy is coming by today to check it out. I'm hoping it's not a big thing like a water pump or compressor. But time will tell.

The Living Conflict; Soup Kitchen; Fellowship Church

I just posted new author Daniel Burnham's "The Living Conflict" on The Brew. It's a look at the continuous conflict for anyone who believes in Christ.

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There’s nothing like serving in a run-down, grimy soup kitchen to get your mind off your own depressed, narcissistic self.

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Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX

Saturday night I went to this church with my friend Trent and his wife, Sarah. We do this periodically to see what all is out in the DFW area. We both have our own smaller churches that we’re committed to but enjoy experiencing other churches and then discussing them.

So we thought we’d tackle the mega-churches, which is why we went to Fellowship, perhaps the largest mega-church in DFW, or possibly Texas. Ed Young is the pastor, but he was on vacation this week. We’re all naturally cynical, having gone to Bible school and having experienced what we would consider to be ‘real’ church at our smaller congregations. We tried to be fair, but we couldn’t get away from being skeptics.

The best way to describe it may be to just write about some glimpses.

I visited the restroom and was treated to “Now is The Time” by Delirious? playing through speakers. I thought, it’d been a while since I heard them.

There were five Grapevine cops in and around the church, watching the crowds or directing traffic.

The kid’s wing of the church was a friggin’ amusement park, with a Sea World-lookin walkway, classrooms entrances that looked like rollercoaster waiting lines. There was a fifty-foot tall enchanted castle with a waterfall flowing down the middle. There was enough sensory overload to hook a kid, and drive them to bug their parents until the parents brought the kid back.

The worship service used only one familiar song, while the others seemed to be just ways for the worship team to perform. And did they ever. It was a slick production and impressive. At the beginning of the set, the worship leader, who looked like a mix between Prince and Seal, said, “Look around you at the beautiful people all around you.” This was the lead in to have everyone greet each other.

The spookiest part was as we were leaving, and had Silversun Pickups playing was we left the parking lot. A song played and the lyrics started off like this:

“So much for the light show
pissing on while pissing off
sucking in a smokescreen
selling of a loose knit dream”

It was hard to not compare the lyrics to what we had just experienced. That was trippy.

African Conflicts on The Brew; No News

I just posted Kevin Schwartz's "An African Conflict Even Witch Doctors Stay Away From" on The Brew. It's a humbling look at church conflicts in Africa and how it is resolved.

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I've been thinking of what to blog about. I had a similar problem while talking to someone on the phone today. They asked what's up. I had to think for a while. Most everything has been going pretty well. Church is good. The Coffee Chain That Shall Remain Nameless is good. The Brew is exceeding my expectations. My roommates are cool.

I guess no news is good news.

Blog-fighting on The Brew; Kierkegaard on Adventure

I just posted new author Dale Harris' "Theology, The Internet and Conflict-Loving Conservatives" article, which is a great example of the dark side of online community.

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I read Kierkegaard again and was very encouraged by his ideas about venturing out in faith. I thought about these quotes and how they made so much sense when I thought of well The Brew is doing.

"We delude ourselves into thinking that to refrain from venturing is modesty, and that it must please God as humility. No,no! Not to venture means to make a fool of God--because all he is waiting for is that you go forth."

"A person can distress the spirit by venturing too much. Yet there is comfort in knowing that discipline will surely come and will help him if he honestly humbles himself under it. But a person can also distress the spirit by venturing too little. Alas, but this comes home to him only after a long time, perhaps after many years when he is living in the security he sought by avoiding danger. Now he must experience the truth that he was untrue to himself. Perhaps it does not come until old age, perhaps not until eternity. In any case, the thing to do about venturing too little is to admit humbly before God that you are coddling yourself.

Unless you do this, you will begin to imagine that what you are doing is mighty clever--alas, for then you are lost forever. At that very moment the eternal flickers out, our relationship with God closes up, the truth in you dies, and you become untrue. If, on the other hand, you make the humble admission--perhaps you are sick and therefore despondent, perhaps you are too hard in judging yourself--you at least preserve your relationship to God. Your admission will keep you awake and alert, and will not permit you to become happy in a clearly purchased security, distanced from danger. Perhaps tomorrow, perhaps in a year, faith and confident boldness will rise up in you and you will once again be able to venture."

August's Brew

August's Brew has begun. I posted this month's editorial on conflict on The Brew today.

New Brews; Film Faux Pauxs

Over the weekend and today, I posted Jane Does'"When SHE Struggles"and Lonnie Smith's "Talk To Your Kids About Sex, Dammit!".

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So I went to two movies on Sunday. And each time, I made some kind of mistake that was pretty stinking funny.

The first happened when I purchased a ticket at a automated kiosk. I went through the process of picking which movie (You Kill Me at 4 p.m.) but then I came to the type of ticket I wanted. I wasn’t watching too closely and got a senior citizens discount ticket.
And then all of sudden the ticket popped out of the machine with ‘senior’ printed under the movie title.

The ticket taker did a double-take at the ticket but didn’t say anything. I was more than willing to explain the mistake, but I guessed I passed for over 65.

At the next movie, I got another ticket from an automated kiosk. This time I picked the regular price and the right showtime (The Simpsons Movie at 7:10). But I didn’t realize the ticket taker standing a few feet from the kiosk. So I walked right on by the taker, not even noticing that I blew by her. I didn’t realize what I did till I sat down in my seat in the theater and saw that I had both halves of my ticket.

Both movies were great, by the way. You Kill Me was a great, dark, dry humor movie about a alcoholic hit man, Sir Ben Kingsley, who starts going to AA. And The Simpsons Movie was pretty funny throughout.

Why The Renaissance is Sexier, etc.; One Punk Under God

I posted Georgie Lee Fledderjohn's "Why The Renaissance is Sexier" article on The Brew; it's a look at other fantastical ideas about sex and what is sexy.

Be watching through the end of the month for more articles. I won't be blogging about every single one, since there will be many over the next few days.
Next up is another Jane Doe article on female sexual struggles; then Lonnie Smith's "Talk to Your Kids About Sex, Dammit!". The last one is pretty self-explanatory.

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I love Jay Bakker. I empathize with him. But he is also my hero. He survived a religious catastrophe that never really stopped. He survived a faith that could have surely killed someone else. I could almost say that he survived the church, evangelicalism, the dark side of Christianity, etc.

I moved this DVD to the front of my Netflix queue when I heard that Jay’s mom, Tammy Faye Messner, died from cancer earlier this week. After watching the portions of the series with her in it, it truly is a miracle that she lasted so long. There weren’t many details of how bad the cancer was but what I saw of Tammy Faye disturbed me. Doctors said in the one of the episodes that any day that she keeps living is a miracle. The series was probably filmed last summer, so that could mean that Tammy Faye lasted another year on a who knows how many pills, a portable oxygen machine and Hospice care. And perhaps prayer and faith.

It’s hard to care about someone’s eccentricities when you literally see them dying before your eyes. And that is what you’ll see in One Punk Under God.

You’ll also see Jay do what he can to have a relationship with his dad. This was so hard to watch. The only way that either Bakker was able to communicate to the other was when they were preaching or doing a TV show. Now, naturally, Jay took a lot of initiative to foster a relationship with his famous father, Jim Bakker; but both were so similar in that they almost needed an audience in order to be genuine, open and honest.

I’m always fascinated by anyone’s struggle with their religious identity. I can relate to that. I empathize with that because I do the same. It’s easy for me to over dramatize my struggle for faith, my relationship with my parents or anything else that might be considered hard or traumatic. I’m surely no where near what someone like Jay Bakker has experienced.

But I was completely moved when his dad came to visit the new church Jay started after moving to New York City. I cried when I heard his father say that he was so proud of his son and that Jay was doing what Jim couldn’t do. That was just beautiful.

Homosexuality and The Church on The Brew; Expensive Coffee

I posted part one of an anonymously written article entitled "Homosexuality and The Church" on The Brew. It's one woman's encounter with homosexuality and then the right and wrong ways to respond (Pt. 2 which will be posted tomorrow).

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So The Coffee Chain That Remains Nameless is raising it's prices for the second time in less than a year (the first was this past fall). Here's a short blurb on it. Coffee and barista-made drinks will go up by .09 on July 31.

The funny thing is that I heard this from regulars at my new store, rather than from someone inside the company.

A New View Of Purity on The Brew

I just posted Dan Morgan's "Entering the Forbidden Garden: A New View Of Purity" on The Brew. It's a damn good article that shows the beauty of purity, without the puritanical downsides.

Enjoy.

Connections on The Brew; Exploration; Undertow

I posted new author Jay Friesen's "Connection: Sex and Praise and Worship" on The Brew.
Jay looks at the longing for connection in music and in the desire for sex.

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I went to meet a good friend at a place called Tipperary Inn in Dallas' Lakewood neighborhood yesterday. I got there a little early so I walked around and explored a little was well rewarded.

I found a little hole in the wall coffee shop called Coffee Co. The entire store was about the size of my apartment living room but looked like a farmer's market/mercantile in the middle of a coffee shop. There were only about two tables in the small place, possibly due to the coffee roaster that took up the front part of the store.

When I walked in, the owner was roasting some Columbian beans and it smelled amazing and slightly nutty. My first thought was, 'How does this guy stay in business?' I looked at his list of coffee beans and saw the prices were slightly higher. But he did have Jamaican Blue Mountain beans (one of the most expensive beans, next to the Hawaian Kona beans and the silly Asian-monkey-digested coffee beans). I thought I'd support the little guy so I bought a 1/4 pound of the Jamaican beans ($13).

By that time, my buddy showed up to the Irish 'snug' for a beer or two. They apparently call it a 'snug' because, unlike the more open pubs, this place had partitions between seats to give privacy to the patrons. Two seats at the bar had partitions with stained glass on either side to separate them from the other bar stools.

I had a Boddingtons (really flavorful and complex) and a some other kind (can't remember the name) that had 1776 in the title.

Either I had an empty stomach before hand or the two beers I had were pretty potent. So I walked over to a used bookstore, Paperbacks Plus. I refrained from buying anything, mostly because I'd already bought two books last weekend at another used bookstore (Blue Blood, a memoir by a New York City cop, and Attack Upon Christendom by Kierkegaard). But it was great to smell that used book smell when I walked in the door. It was good to follow the maze of bookshelf hallways and find so many books that you think you might read.

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I watched Undertow last night. Great style; has a choppy, unfinished look that seems to imitate the look and feel of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre films (though Undertow is not a horror movie). Great Southern gothic tale. Not as dark and menacing as I thought it was going to be.

My Take on Tommy Nelson on The Brew; How To Become Outgoing

I just posted my article "Sex? Well, Duh! (A Look at
Tommy Nelson)" on The Brew. It's
my 'sex columnist' look at Tommy Nelson and his Song
Of Solomon series.

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So I realized that I'm becoming more of an extrovert (or maybe just an introvert that's coming to process more of everything verbally). My journaling has dwindled to a month's time between each short entry.

And I've spent a lot more time on friends' front porches, plowing through a six pack of Pacifico or Bass while also plowing through talk about friends, church and everything else.

God has blessed me with some great drinking buddies (one is a good bud from Moody and another graduated from Pensacola, but has since experienced grace) who have become my support system down here in Texas. They've taken the place of all the other Moody alum who stick around Chicago and help their fellow grads figure out life after Moody.

And I think that this is the first time in a long time that I've actually used the phrase "Life After Moody." It's like there's no need to use Moody as some descriptor or designator of time anymore. It's like it's just "Life."

Tommy Nelson For Females on The Brew; Goodbye Mall Stores and New Milk

I just posted Kennedy Lewis' article "Nelson Hits The Mark With Series On Sex", a female perspective on Tommy Nelson's Song of Solomon sermon series, on The Brew.

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I worked my last day at the mall store of The Coffee Chain That Shall Remain Nameless. There were some cool people working there and I prayed that my last day there would not leave me cursing North Park Mall; I prayed that somehow working at this store could be a good experience.

I lost hope of that when the person who was to open up the store that morning was 45 minutes late. Then plenty of other small things not finished the night before compounded the lateness, effectively destroying my hopes of this being a good day.

But then the day went on and a good crew of people came in to work. As the store got busier, the crew worked well together and I could direct people around to slide the rush through the drink process and erase the line out the door.

The last two hours of constant traffic were enjoyable, and turned the tables on my mood. So I left happy and satisfied. I guess that's an answer to prayer.

And the Coffee Chain found yet another way to improve efficiency yet again. A co-worker (who laughed long and hard about this discovery) blogged about a new way of labeling milk. Check it out.

SATC on The Brew; No Cable

I just posted new author Georgia Lee Fledderjohn's "What Carried Bradshaw Did (And Did Not Do) For Us" on The Brew. It's G-Fled's funny review of the series Sex and the City.

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Life without cable TV is awesome, though I slightly miss being able to watch Law and Order any time of the day and also Dirty Jobs.