Just Another Day

So last night I was at work, and I did something pretty interesting. My shift was 4:30 - 10 PM, and at 7 PM I was so fed up with people, I made a list. But to preface this...

Here's a little known fact about the Barnes&Noble Café:

It's not Starbucks.

We have Starbucks beverages. None of their pastries, none of their chocolates, NONE OF THEIR GIFT CARDS. I was thinking maybe I'd mention some of these facts in each post, so that way anyone drifting through cyberspace might come across this page and see it, then tell everyone they know.

It's really quite simple. Barnes&Noble has Starbucks' drinks. That's it. We buy them from Starbucks, then sell them to you.

I hate it when people come up and try to pay with their Starbucks card, and I have to tell them I can't accept it. More often than not, the person thinks I'm personally judging him or her, and that's why I won't accept it.

I also hate it when they stop to tell me their sob story. "Awh, are you fucking kidding? I can't use this stupid card anywhere!"

First of all, USE IT AT STARBUCKS. You know, the stand-alone building that says STARBUCKS COFFEE.

Secondly, the more you whine and complain to me will not change the fact that if I run the card through the machine, it won't accept as a valid form of payment. I'm convinced some people actually believe that if they try to connect with me on a personal level, or try to make me feel some sort of sympathy* for them, then I'll go "You know what, you're right, this Starbucks card WILL work. All of our accounting and financial systems just changed while you were telling me this. I'll go ahead and take it now!"

So anyway. Now that I've vented all that, I can finally tell you my story. At 7 PM, I made a list. The title was simple: Times People Have Asked to Purchase a Starbucks Gift Card - 12/16.

The total marks only tallied 13, which is a decent amount for the three hours we were open past 7. Little did I know, I should have made two lists. The other list should have been:

Times People Have Looked at me Like I'm an Asshole, Especially Right After Trying to Purchase a Starbucks Gift Card, because They're Confused about How the B&N Café Works and They're Too Lazy and Stupid to Try to Begin to Understand.

But that title probably would have taken too much room, and I would have gotten bored in the middle of writing it and given up.

*Word of the Day: sympathy

n. "mutual understanding arising from a relationship or affinity between people or things"

from Greek sympatheia, from sympathes

-broken down: syn- (together) + pathos (feeling)

Side note / tangent / digression: I love Greek. It would be rad to learn Greek, but I'd prefer Latin. I'd LOVE to learn Latin.

From the Greek sympatheia to the L.L. (Late Latin, as spoken c.300-c.700) sympathia to the Middle French sympathie.

I love etymology. I don't love it enough to make a career out of it, but I love it as a hobby.

So anyway. I hope SOMEONE learned SOMETHING today. I don't know. Good luck with everything, people.

Truly,

David