Jennifer's New Job

Earlier tonight I went down to the old Rosenberg's building for the grand opening of a chain bookstore and Starbuck's coffee. Jennifer and her friend Pam both got jobs working at the Starbuck's place. It was insane when I got there because of the wall-to-wall throngs of snotty people in formal dresses and three piece suits. I hate crowds. Navigating my way through the maze of tall bookshelves and zombies in formal attire I finally got to the side of the building where the Starbucks was. At first I didn't see Jennifer. I was afraid she might have been busy in the back or something but after a few seconds I caught sight of her behind the counter. She was so buried in lines of people that I didn't get much of a chance to talk to her. I did mention to her I wasn't into the mass of bodies wandering around so I wasn't going to hang out for long. She understood and didn't have time to talk to me anyway.

I got a cup of Starbuck's coffee shoved into my hands. It was just okay. Nothing great really. I mean it's definetly better than the Mom and Pop coffee joint she used to work for but it didn't knock my socks off either. If anything else I hope having the Starbucks here will put another nail in the coffin of Jennifer's old employer. Jennifer's boss there was a horrible woman named Barbara. If she went out of business now thanks to the Starbucks that would be poetic justice. Especially since her two top employees left to work for the corporate coffee machine.

When Jennifer and I were in high school together she went into a vocational program and ended up in restaurant services or something like that. One of her first jobs was at the local Mom and Pop coffee house. She also worked part time as a hostess at an Italian restaurant downtown that specialized in gourmet pizzas. At first everything went well for her at the coffee place. The owner treated all his people well and he had a great location downtown. His spot was right next door to the newspaper building so he always had the news staff in there all day long getting their caffeine fixes. Apparently his ogre of a wife Barbara cheated on him or some junk and they ended up getting a divorce that was bitter. She got the coffee business out of him and then he split the scene. Almost immediately afterward Barbara began running the successful business into the ground. She was consistantly manipulative and mean spirited to Jennifer as well as her other employees. One by one they've all quit. Who could blame them.