Coffee Crazy Christmas

   When my husband and I were first married our jobs took up most of our focus and time. We would often arrive home at all odd hours grabbing food on the go or chilling inside a greasy spoon diner. Most often every night I worked till closing at the North end Boise Starbucks coffee shop. We were saving and spending to setup our new married lives. It was amazing how unprepared for Christmas in 2004 we were when I got off work late late that Christmas eve, I was both hungry and cold. Every place we usually hung out at was closed and our own kitchen was bare...So as it snowed outside that night we ate at the chain restaurant Sharis laughing at how crazy it all was! The next morning I had agreed to work, it was the only Starbucks in the treasure valley even open on Christmas day...when we arrived early for coffee before my shift started, my husband was in shock that the place was so packed out, even having a line of customers go around the outside of the building! "WHAT IS THIS?" He asked me as we parked. I giggled he continued "IS there a U2 Concert I didn't know about?" I soon realized I had no time for my own coffee before going to work. My co-workers were all sweating and our espresso machine broken down on one side, to say this was chaos is putting it nicely.....I heard yelling from the impatient customers and the phone ringing back in the office as I entered the scene. Our supervisor was crying hysterically hanging on to me in pure panic and I suddenly regretted having EVER said I would work on this morning. From the moment I clocked on to the second I locked the lobby doors, I never thought much about the time. I had replaced the supervisor who told me about all the drama up to the moment I took over the keys...then I raced around trying to catch up on the chaos, getting things fixed the best way I could and most importantly calming all the angry customers down. My husband had to leave quickly for the yelling customers made him so mad as they got in my face, I watched in awe as the need for coffee took away people's holiday cheer and this will always be remembered as the worst Christmas morning I ever encountered! I don't know why people are so mean to each other, even on Christmas morning when our machine broke the drinks were made at half the speed, the pastries all sold out and the line outside in the cold became so hostile. I ran up and down the lobby writing orders ahead of time, explaining the whole situation of our broken machine yet not very many people were nice about it. I was glad that I remained a smiling person even after being called so many things! Like a stupid bitch or an annoying idiot. I kept thinking to myself that this is the first real Christmas of my whole life, I had woken up from a fairy tale story of "peace on earth" to the commercialism of greed. Suddenly rude mean people are wanting 8 peppermint mochas all at once and right away! I somehow stayed afloat in the chaos and told myself not to start crying for I wouldn't stop if I did....it all made sense now why the other supervisor was flooded in fear. By the end of that day after I mopped the floors with shredded hair sticking out all over, in my sweat ring white collard shirt to the empty dirtiest store I had ever seen left behind by the mob. I stood there a changed person forever, suddenly aware of the horrid selfishness of the holiday. They don't write music for these moments of bad bad people getting away with crazy behavior.  I understood suddenly that I  was never going to be apart of that kind of insanity ever again. My Coffee Crazy Christmas taught me a life lesson, one that I have never forgotten.....Just because it's Christmas doesn't mean everyone will be loving or kind. And NEVER think that the person who is working or waiting on you is less human or less in anyway to yourself! I am ashamed of consuming America it is the action that kills the holiday spirit, missing the whole point to "God bless us, everyone!" I will always remember that Christmas when I knew from here on out sharing the Christmas spirit was a much bigger job then topping a mocha with whip cream!