My Morning Brew or why I had to stop going to Starbucks

** I wanted to give you a heads up that I am catching the red eye flight out of Alaska in a couple of hours for a much needed R&R from a really busy work schedule. I am heading back to the hopefully sunny skies of Cancun with about 20 friends who are in the industry. This is a ‘business’ related trip but will have plenty of time to slow down, get away from fax machines and phone calls and regroup for the upcoming construction season. I will try to get back to my writing of observations while down south and also get to a refreshed schedule.

My recent trip south to Florida gave me time to reflect on my habit of coffee drinking during each daily cycle. I drink coffee at home; work, that afternoon period during or just after ‘rush’ hour and also during the evening. Oddly it calms me and I really enjoy the taste. But sometimes a great thing is just too good to continue at the pace I have been going. Over the last several months I wanted to cut back and the recent trip helped so much better than the other attempts I had tried lately.

Starbuck's has amazing customer service. Sometimes the customer service is just too good.

Caffeine is a drug. A pretty powerful drug too. If you think it isn't and you start your day off with a cup of coffee try going without it one morning. On those the few occasions when that has happened I am reduced to tears lying on the floor in a fetal position with a pounding headache in about two hours. Not really but Cold turkey is not the way to quit anything. I decided during my trip recently to at least cut down since I did great for those two weeks without that familiar Starbucks adventure. That meant I was going to go from ordering a Venti (20oz) in the morning to the next smaller size down.

A Grande (16oz). However every time I walked into my local Starbucks they would already start pouring the super tanker of liquid ambition I need to get into a wakeful state. I felt guilty the first couple of times when I would get to the front of the line and explain that I am trying to cut down and instead of buying this size I wanted the next one down. By about the 5th trip I was starting to get irritated at my baristas. I would walk in the door and just shout, "I am not getting a Venti anymore!" Considering this Starbucks shares space with a bank, walking in shouting anything was really frowned on by everyone. Fine. I would get to the head of the line and just take the Venti waiting for me and pour out what I didn't want. That would sometimes get me dirty looks from other customers.

One morning a lady was doing the same thing at a second Starbucks memory hole counter. We looked up at the same time and caught each others eyes. She smiled and said, "Did you change your size too?"

I was not alone!

Then it occurred to me that there are twenty Starbucks around Anchorage. I will just start going to another one. You know. Start over. Just go to a new one and establish a new routine.

That worked for a while but when I was ready to make the jump down to the next smallest size again the same problem started again. Crap! Thanks for being a bunch of Codependent Johnny on the spots but can you wait till I make it to the counter?

The same situation played itself out over a month. In the end I just did the same thing. I accepted the larger size of coffee with a smile and drained most of it into the memory hole. Then I thought well there are other Starbucks still. So I changed local ones again. I got the Tall coffee for a while with no problems. Then, I walked in one day got to the counter and there at the register was a guy who worked at my original Starbucks. Sitting there was a Venti. "Just the way you like it!" The guy said with a friendly smile.

If you work at a Starbucks you can pick up shifts at any Starbucks in the area, that’s how I learned that little fact.

Let me take this moment to once again apologize to you for what had to seem like the most strange reaction to excellent service ever. After reading the proceeding story you might see why I reacted the way I did. I have been under stress recently. What with the economy, turning a fun trip into one for the book traveling with grandkids, maybe that had something to do with it too. Anyway, sorry.

Here is what happened.

I freaked out. I just wanted to cut down the amount of coffee I was drinking. That’s all, and three months later I was spending more money on less coffee and enjoying it less.

I finally snapped.

"Dear God Man! I have changed and you don’t see it! You just won’t see that my needs aren’t the same anymore! Ahhhh!"

Yeah . . . It must have seemed like I was idiot with this guy.

Cutting down on coffee just made me react the way I do when I drink too much coffee.

And his response to me . . . “Venti Latte to calm you down sir?”

I guess I’ll just have to go back to my Maxwell House Master Blend Drip coffee so I can stay away from Starbucks from now on.

Ice