I made a comment to this one sweet young lady that I have seen working at my local Starbucks for a bit of time now, that doesn’t it drive you nuts to have to say, “Hi,” to everyone that walks through the door?
 
Somewhere along the line, I guess it came down from the great above, that the baristas had to remember the name and say, “Hi, Scott,” or, “Hi,” to whom whatever—whenever a regular customer walks thought the door.  I mean, it’s got to be strange. And, she nodded, “Yes,” with her response.
 
Now me, I have come to know a lot of people that have worked at my various local Starbucks throughout the many years I have been going. …Come to know them in that weird sort of way. Yes, there have been a couple where we have moved beyond the, “Hi, Scott,” to the boudoir, but most, beyond a few common conversations, that was it.
 
I mean, ever since Starbucks hit L.A. I’ve been a fan and a patron. …Generally, at least once a day.
 
The first one was introduced to me via this beautiful, Chinese via Hawaii lady, that I met on the set of a commercial where I had been cast as a beach volleyball player and she was??? But, we got close. When we, Don Jackson and I were editing The Roller Blade Seven, the first Starbucks in L.A. had opened in the same complex where our editing suite was located in West Hollywood. One day, she came by to hung out as I cut the cuts of the film and Don tried to pick up on her to no avail. …I think he did that just to test me and to piss me off. That’s the kind of guy he was. Anyway, she told us about this new coffee house that had just opened, and we sent her to get us some Mochas. She brought us back triple shot Café Mochas, which sent both Don and my heart rate into overdrive. …As we both had heart conditions and were both eating Valium and Xanax like baby aspirin due to all of the stress of the production. The mochas made us felt pretty terrible.
 
But, she was a great girl! I’ve mentioned her in a few spots in relation to this period of time. …A time when I was such a player that I treating most women in a far less than ideal circumstance than I should have. I’m truly sorry!!!
 
But, I was hooked. Starbucks was my thAng. More opened up. And, I have spent many a time drinking their poison all across the globe.
 
But, the thing of the thing is, there have been so many people I have come to know via Starbucks. Most of them in that very abstract sort of way. I mean, there was this one Starbucks that I used to frequent. …Frequent a lot. Like every day around two or two thirty in the PM. There, the staff would never charge me for whatever I ordered. It was virtually always free. Thanks!!!
 
From there, I got to be talk-talking with this one barista. His girlfriend had gone through makeup school and wanted to get her career off the ground. I hired her do makeup on one of Zen Films.   
 
But, the Starbucks people… I have known a lot—known, in that weird sort of way. In some cases, as stated, they became more. But for most, it was this abstract thing; known but unknown. Face seen. Words spoken. But, then they were gone. They moved on with their life. Where did they go, who knows???
 
I remember one was transferring shops, and thought it would be, “So cool,” as she stated, if, "Someone like me,” would come to her new shop up in Eugene, Oregon. I thought about it. I thought about her. But, it never happened.
 
…One, she took her own life. Damned by an ex-boyfriend who posted lies about her on the inter-web. What an asshole! She was a really special individual.
 
One or two died via natural causes. If there is such a thing. Sad!!! Goodbye. I will always remember you. Most just drifted to another life. Another life far from the realms of my Starbucks reality.
 
In a way, Starbucks is kind of like owning an aquarium. The people that work there are on display, swimming around. You look at them, you know of them, maybe you talk to them, maybe you like them, maybe they like you, but, like the fish in the aquarium, eventually they are all gone. Gone by whatever random causation-factor. Gone, never to be seen again.  
 
That’s a lot like life, don’t you think? That other person is here, then they are gone. You and I are here, then we will be gone.
 
Life it is all so temporary.