updates
So today i had the "Starbucks Experience". Its like Starbucks day camp. It was kinda cool because we did a bunch of tasting. I learned all about coffee and how its proccesed and farmed. Sometimes you can easily forget that the world is bigger than the store you work in. A farmer ACTUALLY hand picks the beans for the coffee. It really makes me think twice about the work that goes into the coffee. I feel bad pouring coffee down the drain after seeing workers hauling 128 pound bags of coffee beans. It seems so disrespectful to just pour their labours down the sink. On that note, the boil water effect is still, well, in effect. So we can still only do brewed coffee and tea. So NO Lattes, Americanos, Mistos, Mochas, Machiatos, or ANYTHING with steam. You would think after puting signs everywhere that customers could actually read them, they are there for a reason. But we still get customers that say "Can i get a Java Chip Frappachino?" and i say "No, because of the water ban we can't do any drink except for brewed coffee and tea". I typically get the response of "Oh, okay, well, i'll just get a latte then.". "Actually, sir, we can't do latte, they use steamed milk, and the steam is not hot enough to kill the bacteria in the water". Sometimes people get upset and say "If i can only get coffee why should i even come to Starbucks...."
Coffee Coffee Coffee
So i am not a Starbucks Barista...i wish i had a more masculan title, 'barista' seems so femminine. If anyone out there knows of the proper name for a guy in my profession, please tell me. I am actually a shift manager in training. I need to do a few weeks of barista training and then i start my manager training. I get to taste all sorts of coffee too. Im not a huge coffee fan, but seeing as there is a boil water order STILL in effect all we can do is brewed coffee or tea. Good time to train.
PWND...EPIC....SAWEETTT
It doesn't really what form of exclamation you take, the fact still remains, i quit Golftown in an epic way. First let me explain as to why i quit. They started cutting my hours, mid-week actually, and then didn't bother to tell me, let me find out on my own, and getting to drive into the city everyday was taking its toll on my car and my wallet. So on Wednesday (my day off) i drove into Golftown and gave my verbal 2 weeks notice. My boss said "I need that in writing", so, i took a piece of paper from the printer, got a pen, and wrote out "This is my 2 weeks notice effective of yada yada, and my last shift will be yada yada" Then i gave it to him. He asked if i was sure, because really, im leaving GT before the biggest week of the year. I told him i was sure, and left. The next day when i came in for my first cut-back shift (9-4:30 became 11-3) one of my bosses took me aside and told me that had been bought out. This was great! wait....tell me John* what does being bought out mean. "We've decieded to buy out your last three shifts this week, so we are going to pay you and you won't have to work, is this okay?" I asked if i got a choice in the matter and i was told no, to which i replied "Then does it matter if its okay? I gave my two weeks notice, which means if you are going to buy me out you need to pay me for 2 weeks, not 3 cut shifts" I was told that, no, i was wrong. I tried to explain the law to my bosses, but i was told "We are just the messengers". I told them that i had to think about some things, and i left. I called my father, and told him that something was not right with this situation. I asked him to call some judges or lawyers and find out (see he's good friends with some people in high places) I got a call back shortly, it was my father, and he explained that i was indeed right and that this was indeed wrong, and an illegal practice actually. If i was to be bought out written notice was required, and that two weeks full time pay was needed (as i was working full time hours). He told me that he was coming down to talk to my boss. See my dad is not as 'reserved' as i am. He tends to get his opinion across quite well. He came down to the store and i pointed out my Assistant Manager. My father then said: "My name is Rob Laird and i am representing my son Don Laird, i was wondering if there is some place we can talk. (we walked to the office and he introduces himself and as does my boss) I am a member of the Federal Court of Canada, James*, and as such i can tell you that under the Alberta Labour Law, Division 8, Sections 58-62 specifially section 59, what Golftown is practicing here is an illegal procedure." He then explained to my wide-eyed boss that if this situation was not rattified by the next morning he and i would be in to serve papers against Golftown and to file a complaint with the Labour Board. He got a call less than an hour later from an executive of Golftown asking if it would be okay if he could extend a personal appology for the confusion and if it would be okay if they could courrier a cheque directly to our house.
Today was my first shift at Starbucks.
Musica
I've found myself listening to lots of classical music lately. The strange part about that is because of the reasons behind it. Its Walmarts fault really. They have 'classical' music compilations for $10.00. As a starving student i can hardly ignore the chance to get all of Beethovens symphony's in a 5 CD set in a collector tin. So i grabbed Beethoven, Bach, Classical Favorite, and Piano Classics. I now have 17 CD's and it cost only $40.00. Thats a huge bargain. Walmart needs to learn that anything after Beethoven though was NOT classical music, it was considered Romantic, then it goes into Impressonistic, and then 20th century. It's not ALL classical music....jeez
MIA
I apologize for my lack of posting recently, i've been sort of Missing In Action. Im not sure what i want to write about, but i just got the urge to write something down, to let people know i was actually still alive and well. I have been working quite a bit lately, which accounts for most of my absence (today im working 12 hours). I think i need to make a point to this blog, it seems to mirror my life quite well. Im not saying my life is pointless, far from it actually, my life has pointedness (hmmm), or is that pointfullness, or maybe just a point. But what i mean is that i think my life needs direction. The downside to loving so much of life is that i find it so incredibly hard to choose what i want to do with the rest of my life. I know that i don't want to spend the rest of my life working in a golf retail store though. I want to do something that i love, after i find what that it, it doesn't really matter how much i make, as long as i can support my family. I've come to realize, mostly from talking to people where my dad works, that money is indeed not everything, and that it indeed cannot buy happiness. See, here is how my mind works. If i look at all these people that i sell expensive clothes and shoes to, or i see all these people driving fancy cars, they are all still striving for something, to get more, and more and more, they are never happy. I saw a shirt a couple days ago in the GAP that said SHOES, CARS, MONEY in big letters, but, in between each word it said "Isn't plenty enough". I chuckled at the immese irony of the shirt being in the GAP, but, inside i thought, 'why can't it'. If i have all this money, and plenty is not enough, that means that money does not satisfy. That means something else must, but what? I think the anwser is God. Right now im in the process of discovering my faith, and throwing away my inherrited faith, i cannot survive on a faith passed down to me. If i gain this faith that my parents have, i have no chance at standing up to a clever person that questions me about it. I was reading a book briefly in Chapters called "The Reason for God" and it was saying that Christians need to start to look at their doubts, and fix them, they must 'doubt their doubts' i thought that was very clever and witty. Maybe i thought this because i am in the same process.
I work with some people that get on my nerves, and i find myself constantly asking God for patience and for peace. One of them is my department manager. I find him to be quite arrogant and cocky in the way he conducts his buisness. If people know me, they know that i try to not be cocky or arrogant, its acutally one of my big pet peeves, so having a boss that is the same way can be very annoying, maybe God put him in my path to test me. What bugs me most about the way that he acts is that he has no legitimate reason to act this way. This is because he has only been in the store for a few months, in comparrison to my 2 years. I have a greater history with the products and the service of this kind of clientel. He constantly interrupts me while im talking to a customer to tell the customer totally different, and in some casses wrong about the product im showing them. I bite my tounge though, but i get the urge to show him up in front of customers to show my vastly superiour intellect (thats a joke, i don't think it came across as such though). These are the moments that i ask God for patience and peace.
So that is a bit of an update on my life, there is still lots going on, maybe even a potential girlfriend (those starbucks barristas are awfully cute ;)
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