Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Last Starbucks Shift

At 2.06pm on May 20th, 2009 (that's today in case you weren't paying attention), I punched out at Starbucks for the last time. Technically I'm still employed there until the end of the month, so at least theoretically I should still be able to get a free pound of coffee next week. I'll keep you posted.

It was a strange day.

When I punched in, I thought (and said), "Hey! This is the last time I'm punching in for a shift at Starbucks!" Som said, "Imagine if fireworks went off or something." They didn't and I hadn't thought of that, but it seemed, when she said it, that it would have been appropriate had some done so.

Then I requested to be able to take the trash out . . . because I like to.

Then we got a rush for a couple of hours that left us totally occupied and I'm fairly certain filled up every square foot of our tiny store with people. The odd thing was that all our current regulars came in, but so did all these people who used to be regulars back in the old days when Frank was a manager. It was as if some subliminal and telepathic signal had been sent out and they all came back to say goodbye or something . . . which I realise makes me sound incredibly full of myself, but seriously--it happened all day long, even when the rush had ended.

It was pretty cool, and though I have no regrets about leaving, I realised again that I do have some really great memories. Also, I sat on the wall for the actual last time at lunchtime.

This kind of attitude, though? I won't miss at all . . .


"Pearls Before Swine" cartoon, May 17th 2009, by Stephan Pastis.

2 comments:

Cliff said...

Nah, not full of yourself. :) Sometimes weird stuff like that just happens. Seems to be more frequent with the literary types - we're able to see glimpses of the stories of our lives!

Annelise said...

That cartoon was certainly appropriate! :-)