The honeymoon's over, baby

Now I know you may be thinking, "How can the honeymoon be over? You're not even married." Duh. I'm trying to use a metaphor here. Work with me, people, would you? *exaggerated sigh* Okay, back to my point...

I believe that I may be reaching the end of the honeymoon stage at work. I still enjoy my job, don't get me wrong, but sometimes the days drag by even when I'm busy. For one thing, I've developed a love-hate relationship with the drive-thru in my store. When I'm at work, I like to be busy. It makes the time go by faster. The drive-thru is always busier than the cafe, but the downside is that the customers tend to be snobbier, too. I must say, I was completely shocked at the percentage of customers that come through talking on their cellphones. Most of them do not even stop talking long enough to pay and get their drinks, they just hold out their money and keep talking. After a while, it starts to get to you. Then there are the customers who, although they are not on cell phones, just ignore you anyway. They pull up to the window and stare straight ahead the whole time. They don't talk. They just hold out their money until you take it, then keep their hand there until you put a drink in it. I'm not exaggerating - people really do this.

It's not all bad, though. We have a lot of nice customers who come through the drive-thru, too. Today one of the drive-thru customers asked me what my name was. She told me that she has been going to Starbucks regularly for five years and I'm her favorite, that I'm the only one who always gets her drink right. That made my day. Especially since I have only been working there a month.

It's nice to be settled in and know my way around, too. I've begun figuring out some of the stuff that they don't teach you during training. For example: the walkie-talkie function on the drive-thru headsets. Oh, sure, it's there to make our jobs easier and enable us to provide better customer service- but hey, it's just like a walkie-talkie! The possibilities are endless. We have a customer that comes in every day and orders some sort of alcoholic drink. I'm sure some people found it funny the first time, maybe even the second, but enough is enough. I've only worked there a month; I don't even know how long he's been doing it. Dude needs a new joke. When he came in today, he asked if it was happy hour. Then he asked if he could get a couple shots of tequila. After he finally ordered his actual drink, he asked if he could get an extra shot of jagermeister in it. As I went to the back room to get some ice, I couldn't resist making a sarcastic comment about the novelty of the joke in my handy-dandy walkie-talkie. I know, not very nice, but I'm sure that's what the walkie-talkie function was truly intended for. Sarcasm.

Classes start on Wednesday. I'm looking forward to the classes, but not to the commute. What would be a 20 minute drive(if traffic wasn't too bad) will end up being a minimum 45 minute bus ride - but that's only if I take an express bus. The last one leaves at 7:30 am every day. I intentionally arranged my schedule so that my first class doesn't start until 10:30. It doesn't seem to have paid off. So now I can either take the 7:30 bus and go work out at the University gym before class, wait and take a bus at 9:00 for a longer commute, or find someone to carpool with. Knowing me, I'll probably plan on taking the 7:30 bus to school every day and actually take it about once a week. The other days I'll press the snooze bar eleventy-billion times and take the 9 am bus. So the 2-part question of the day is: What is the longest you've had to commute for school/work? Do you prefer to drive, carpool, or take public transport?