Location, Location, Location

Okay, I just found out something about the Starbucks nearest the office and I don't like it. Turns out they don't sell any Coke or Pepsi products. Normally this wouldn't bother me since I'm not going to specifically hit it up for those items in comparison to, say, go out of my way to buy a Coke at a Starbucks- super American, right? But when I walked in out of the 25 degree temperatures this morning into my toasty warm office, I immediately saw both bosses sitting at the table with a client. One looks at me, says, "Great! Since you're still in your coat, why don't you set your bags down and head back out to get us some coffee?" So he wrote down everyone's order and out I went. I was told to go to Starbucks for one, and a coffee stand for another, but tried to ignore my inner belief that coffee is coffee and went and stood in the "business-line" at Starbucks. What I mean when I say this is that I was surrounded by other NYC assitants and good souls who were buying coffee for essentially the whole company and probably a couple of homeless people nearby. The line was in theory short but since people were ordering 6-20 drinks, it seemed to take forever.

When I got done placing my own order, I added on, "And a Diet Coke." The girl behind the register looked at me oddly, and said, "What?" "A diet Coke."
"We don't sell sodas."
"You don't?"
"No."
"No Coke products?" (I wanted to be positive before I started searching for one)
"No."

So I sighed and joined the queue with everyone else waiting for drinks as they yelled out. What amazes me is that they are super organized when screaming out "Caramel macciato, half-soy, half-skim latte, venti regular" while hordes of people angrily stand around glaring at the green-capped people behind the counter and demanding to know when their drink will come up. When mine finally came up, I decided to leave off my gloves, since I was only techinacally walking a couple of blocks back to the office. I walked down to the coffee stand and asked for a decaf with milk. Another strange look, and the man in the box said "No decaf. Only regular". Another long sigh from me. "Well, do you at least have diet coke?" Affirmative and with that, I headed back up to Starbucks, the wind whipping past me and pushing me so hard I spilled coffee on my new coat.

Back in the Starbucks I approached the counter carrying the tray that is used in places like McDonald's and Starbucks to carry several drinks. I could see the face of the girl saying "Next customer, please" and she had the look that goes with somebodys-messed-up.

"I need a decaf regular."

And then I put the milk in myself, remembering that the request had been sugar on the SIDE, please. As I walked back to the office I thought how unfair it was to go this long without the promised raise, carrying coffee for people who are gettng paid enough to order it in. It impresses upon me what An-drea-uh must have felt in THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA as she desperately ran the ridiculous errands her boss demanded. So it's already been a day and it's barely 10 a.m.