Thanksgiving, a time to reflect on the things in your life that you are grateful for. Also, a time for thousands to flock to my coffee shop to quench their thirst with a cup o' joe.
You heard it...thousands of people...in a little under 3 hours. Our sales before noon rivaled that of a regular 6am-11pm business day.
How is this possible in a major city that becomes a ghost town come Sundays and major holidays? On the coldest day of the year thus far? When the hotel next door is only hosting 12 people?
Two words: Turkey Trot
A Turkey Trot is a 5k race that is held in cities all over the country. Runners are encouraged to come and burn of their Thanksgiving meal (before they even have a chance to smell it). The race happened to start and end across the street from my work and brought utter chaos to my little coffe shop.
Unbenounced to us, the race planners forgot to put bathrooms into their race configuration, making our single person bathroom the only public restroom in the area. At times the line to use the bathroom was longer than the line to buy a latte. Dozens crowded into our tiny little cafe to escape the bitter cold. Many didn't even order anything.
It was entertaining to see how thankful some were to see that we were open. Remember how I told you some people need their coffee to be productive? Well that dependency doesn't take a holiday, so neither can we baristas. Deep sighs of relief could be heard coming from the regular coffee drinkers at the back of the line as the sweet, comforting aroma of coffee slowly seeped into their nostrils.
Now I know many of you are DYING to know what I am thankful for this Thanksgiving. The truth is that I was thankful to be alive. Last Thanksgiving on my way home to eat dinner at my huge 30 person family gathering I was rear ended on the freeway. Next thing I knew, I was in the right lane facing backwards with a truck barreling down on me at 70 miles an hour. Still a year later, it is unclear to me how my car did not get hit by that truck. My car was hit a total of 3 times by 3 different cars, and only one car stopped to see if I was alright. I know that somebody was watching over me that day and a year later, I got goosebumps thinking about how the accident could have been much worse.
The memory of the accident was hard to escape that day. As I was restocking some essentials, my mind wandered back to the vision of that truck, and the feeling of fear and helplessness that came with it. My memory was interrupted by a customer at the register. "You know what I'm thankful for this year? I'm thankful that you guys are open and I don't have to go a day without my latte!"
I began to chuckle silently to myself because I realized I was also thankful that I wasn't that guy.
It was entertaining to see how thankful some were to see that we were open. Remember how I told you some people need their coffee to be productive? Well that dependency doesn't take a holiday, so neither can we baristas. Deep sighs of relief could be heard coming from the regular coffee drinkers at the back of the line as the sweet, comforting aroma of coffee slowly seeped into their nostrils.
Now I know many of you are DYING to know what I am thankful for this Thanksgiving. The truth is that I was thankful to be alive. Last Thanksgiving on my way home to eat dinner at my huge 30 person family gathering I was rear ended on the freeway. Next thing I knew, I was in the right lane facing backwards with a truck barreling down on me at 70 miles an hour. Still a year later, it is unclear to me how my car did not get hit by that truck. My car was hit a total of 3 times by 3 different cars, and only one car stopped to see if I was alright. I know that somebody was watching over me that day and a year later, I got goosebumps thinking about how the accident could have been much worse.
The memory of the accident was hard to escape that day. As I was restocking some essentials, my mind wandered back to the vision of that truck, and the feeling of fear and helplessness that came with it. My memory was interrupted by a customer at the register. "You know what I'm thankful for this year? I'm thankful that you guys are open and I don't have to go a day without my latte!"
I began to chuckle silently to myself because I realized I was also thankful that I wasn't that guy.
1 comment:
God is always watching over you... isn't He awesome?
Know what I am most thankful for? You... and your brothers...
I love you princess!
Mom : )
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