Tipping was supposed to be for exceptional service, above and beyond what is expected. Not to make up for the cheapness of employers. Now, at Starbucks they pay close to a living wage. And it would be much closer if you were guarenteed a set amount of hours each week. However, since you’re not, almost everyone there works more than one job since you will only get between 16 and 22 hours per week when you’re new. At $9.00 hour, that ain’t much.

But I digress. Now that I am actually paid tips I had to figure out if my “tune” concerning tipping had changed. And you know what….it hasn’t. I would rather be paid slightly more and customers discouraged from tipping except for exceptional service. Because to be honest the customers who are the biggest pain in the ass never tip. The really nice guy who is pleasant always leaves a big tip, while the nasty women who has you remake her drink 3 times doesn’t leave anything.

In Europe, I believe tipping is discouraged and waiters/baristas are actually paid a living wage. It is a profession that one can make a living at, unlike in the United States. Perhaps we should follow that example.

But until that time comes….I’m still picking up my tips

However, since my mother is coming to visit in a week or so I decided that I really needed to do something about the craft room/office/guest room so that she could actually fit the air mattress on the floor.

Here’s a picture of what my side looks like after picking it up and sorting into piles of knitting stuff, beading stuff, sewing stuff, and designing….I think I need a bigger room!

And for anyone out there who actually cares about how the knitted gifts turned out, everyone loved them, even my sister despite the fact that her cardigan turned out to be a couple of inches too short. After I had added on additional length! Let this be a lesson….never let someone take their own measurements and send them to you.

Oh and by the way….what the fuck is up with people correcting Starbucks employee’s grammer?!? Granted I will agree that the grammer usage of today’s youth is in a sad state, but you know what people, you try dealing with the public before they’ve had their coffee and stay cheerful and helpful and not tell customers to fuck off for 6 to 8 hours a day and then you can correct my grammer! Until then, get a life and get out of my store!

I haven’t been posting because I’ve been working (and all the nasty people have appeared at my Starbucks) and knitting….damn deadlines!

Stupidest request at work so far….an older gentleman ordered a tall decaf with 1 TABLESPOON of heavy whipping cream. Do you really think that A) I actually have a measuring spoon behind the counter, and B) I’m going to measure it??? Get real!

Anyways, here’s the best of the email:

Here are a few things to think about:

Can you cry under water?

How important does a person have to be before they are considered
assassinated instead of just murdered?

Why do you have to “put your two cents in”.. but it’s only a “penny for
your thoughts”? Where’s that extra penny going to?

Why does a round pizza come in a square box?

How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be
a good idea to put wheels on luggage?

Why is it that people say they “slept like a baby” when babies wake up
like every two hours?

Why are you IN a movie, but you’re ON TV?

Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in
binoculars to look at things on the ground?

Why do doctors leave the room while you change? They’re going to see
you naked anyway.

Why is “bra” singular and “panties” plural?

Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a
horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?

If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a stupid song about
him?

Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the carpool lane ?

If the professor on Gilligan’s Island can make a radio out of a
coconut, why can’t he fix a hole in a boat?

If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from
vegetables, what is baby oil made from?

If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?

Do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same
tune?

Why did you just try singing the two songs above?

Why do they call it an asteroid when it’s outside the hemisphere, but
call it a hemorrhoid when it’s in your butt?

Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog’s face, he gets mad at
you, but when you take him for a car ride; he sticks his head out the
window?

He was one of those rare men who believed almost to the point of mental illness in his own righteousness.

Wilson believed in fact that his will and spirit were informed by the spirit and hope of a people and even of God. He talked of his “sympathetic connection which I am sure that I have with” all American citizens and said, “I am sure that my heart speaks the same thing that they wish their hearts to speak.” “I will not cry ‘peace’ so long as there is sin and wrong in the world”, he went on. “America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture.”

He is probably the only American president to have held this belief with quite such conviction, with no sign of self-doubt. It is a trait more associated with crusaders than politicians (p. 121).

Currently I would have to ask Mr. Barry if he still felt that Wilson was the only American president to have these characteristics.

The scary thing is that Wilson’s sheer righteousness caused him to severely limit free speech and crush any opposition to the war….and one result was the influenza pandemic of 1918, started in the United States and spread to the rest of world via World War I.

So far this book is extremely fascinating and very well written. It goes into detail regarding how several different variables contributed to the pandemic, from political to social to medical. It’s absolutely terrifying.

To give a perspective on the death toll:

Influenza killed more people in a year than the Black Death of the Middle Ages killed in a century; it killed more people in 24 weeks than AIDS has killed in 24 years (p. 5).

A 2003 study estimates the annual deaths in the United States (data taken from 1990-1999) due to respiratory and circulatory complications from influenza and pneumonia to be approximately 36,000.

36,000 a year just from the flu.

Maybe this year I should get my flu shot…

I need my head examined!

I decided that since I’m not working full time and money is tight I am going to knit Christmas gifts for most of my family. Here’s what the list looks like (status in italics):

Lace cardigan* (blocking now, must be seamed)

Lace fingerless gloves (1 done, 1 half done)

Fair isle fingerless gloves* (not started)

Plain fingerless gloves* (1 done, 1 quarter done)

2 pairs of mens socks (not started)

1 pair of womens socks (1 done)

Large felted purse (decorated and lined)* (starting tonight)

Small felted purse (decorated and lined)* (not started)

Mens hat (not started)

Women’s scarf (not started)

The asterisk means that they are my own design, so not only do I have to knit them but I have to design them as well, usually learning from my mistakes as a go along.

See what I mean? I’m crazy. Or if I’m not now, I will be by Christmas. Oh, and most of these actually need to be done before Christmas so I can mail them out in time. Which leaves me about 1 month.

So most (all) of my free time for the next month is going to be spent knitting. I can now knit my way into the psych ward….

I once got out of my car, which is a manual transmission, to run back into my second story apartment and forgot that I had pulled it out of gear. Apparently my driveway was not entirely flat (you’d never know by looking at it) and so when I came back out my car wasn’t where I had left it….it had rolled back into my neighbors SUV (which was parked illegally btw).

No damage to my car, but a lovely dent in the SUV. So after I explained to them what happened and gave them my information I got a call from their insurance agent to verify the accident. It was an interesting conversation:

Agent: I’d just like to verify that you were involved in an accident with [neighbor's name] vehicle.

Me: No, my car was involved in an accident with their vehicle, I wasn’t in it at the time.

Agent: So, you didn’t hit their SUV?

Me: NO, my car hit their SUV, I was upstairs in my apartment.

Agent: I don’t understand, could you explain that please?

Me: I accidently left my car out of gear and our driveway apparently isn’t flat because my car rolled back and ran into their SUV. I wasn’t driving it at the time.

Agent: I don’t know how to classify this.

Me: I’m sure you’ll think of something.

2. Discuss physics and the mathematical reasoning behind the saying “Women are evil” while drinking copious amounts of Natty Ice. Prove that you can change the equation to show that “Men are evil”.

3. Play ridiculous amounts of beer pong while drinking Natty Ice and wearing a short skirt.

4. Wear a short skirt.

5. Be interested when discussing things like hydrolic jumps at 2 in the morning in the middle of Cambridge during a downpour.

6. Laugh at his jokes.

7. Laugh at the same jokes later. And I mean word for word.

8. Give him clear guidelines and deadlines, remember social skills are not his strong point.

I remember the first romance novel I ever read. I’m a book addict and my mom never really monitered my reading material. Well, except for the porn, but I can’t really blame her for that. Anyways I had read all my books and picked up one of hers, a bodice ripper by Johanna Lindsay. I think I got about halfway through it when she decided that it was inappropriate for a 12 year old. I think I may have made to just before the first sex scene, so I was pissed off when she took it away from me. And she didn’t just hide it (I would have found it) but she actually got rid of the book so I couldn’t finish it.

I was 16 before I finally got to finish it. I couldn’t remember the name, but I knew the author and remembered the characters so I managed to find it again by reading the backs of all the Johanna Lindsay books until I matched up what I remembered. Pretty good sex scene too

Funny enough, I had the same experience with a porn story (is that an oxymoron?). It got taken away before I finished it only you can’t buy Penthouse in the local Barnes and Noble…or at least I don’t think you can. I could be wrong.

Soooo…I don’t exactly know where this post came from, except that perhaps I need to get some sleep.

Oh, and the book was Savage Thunder….and I don’t read that author anymore