:: My Urban Eyes ::
All that I see, and then some.
:: Friday, September 29, 2006 ::
Crochet and Espresso
On Tuesday I celebrated my day off with a trip to the closest big box craft store in Emeryville. While I love independants to death, the only yarn I've been able to find in the city is beautiful and expensive ($12/skein and up) or just expensive (what should be a $2.50 skein selling for $5).
So off on BART to Emoryville, which turns out, is a suburban wasteland. They had a free bus that looped around "town", which was good, because absolutely nothing was in walking distance. Even the things that were were separated by freeways and their cloverleafs. (Lingustic note: both 'cloverleafs' and 'cloverleaves' are valid plurals of cloverleaf, a kind of interstate interchange. On the other hand, when refering to the plant they are "clover leaves", space included. Huh. I guess when we reappropiate words the grammar can change along with the meaning--neat.) Anyway, it's not a friendly town for those without a car, athough the bus system is certainly trying.
Find my way to big box store number one to find a quite small, ill-stocked store that doesn't even have cable needles. I do manage to snag a skein of cute baby yarn, though.
Once I was able to find the bus stop going the other way (yaaargh routes splitting as if there's one way when there isn't) I take it to big box store number two, which lives up to all of my ideals--nice sized yarn section, cable needles, hooks in all sizes and two different brands, a nice person on register to give my money to. My take ended up being another skein of baby yarn (for knitting and hopefully some preemie hats for the hospital), some nicely shaded Red Heart, and some awesome Caron Simply Soft in dark brown and heather gray. The lattermost is the beginning of an afghan in ripple stitch. When I told Mark about it I hyped it as "something great to cuddle with on the couch or have on the bed!" forgetting that he radiates heat and never gets cold on the couch nor in bed. So maybe it'll just be a blanket for me. -_^
Everything else is going really well. I still love work, yea! ^_^ Next week Starbucks is implimenting a company wide pay raise, which in my region means a bump of almost a dollar an hour. I won't qualify for it until I reach my 6 mo. mark at the beginning of Febuary, though. :/ It'll be an awesome bump when it happens--January 1st city min wage rises to meet infation (yeaaa living wage law!), going up $0.35/hr. At six months I'll get bumped up the remaining $0.65/hr or so, plus the pay raise that comes at my six month review. That will certainly make waiting a little easier! ^_^
I'm up to speed on bar, even rush speed, which is a lot of fun. It's kind of like a puzzle--in what order should I start these drinks so we have them made in the least amount of time? It's a fun challenge. When a customer asks for a drink to be remade, though, the entire system crumbles and things get backed up. Sometimes it's legit (we mismade the drink, the cup was mismarked, the customer forgot to ask for non-fat milk) and sometimes it feels like they're milking the system ("I wanted a venti, not a tall", "I wanted a quad espresso, not a solo"). We smile and make the drink to their liking, but sometimes you wonder if they are honest mistakes.
Next week our maple drinks come out--maple latte, maple frappuccino, probably a maple creme, too. We already got some syrup in so we got to sample it--very sugary, but very very good. I have trouble drinking a plain ol' latte, but a maple latte? No problem.
One thing that a lot of my coworkers (and I) are worried about is gaining weight at work. We get free drinks before, during, and after our shifts, so it's easy for calories to build up. One coworker only drinks tea and coffee which, unsweetened, are less than 10 calories a cup. Another always has a glass of water nearby to quell the urge for a mocha. I'm doing my best to stick to splenda-sweetened tea, and when I do get a maple or chai latte I use non-fat milk and use fewer pumps of syrup. Every little bit, right?
...right! ^_^
:: Kazen @ Always Doing 8:55 PM [+] ::
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