Changed my mind

Okay, Judy - I changed my post, so no need to comment about the fact that I changed my post. I hit "publish" then realized I wanted to link to a story in the post, couldn't find the story, then lost steam and decided to just post about something else. Something less inflammatory.

So, here is my new post. Yesterday, I stopped at one of my favorite coffee shops to do a little writing on my laptop. I ordered my coffee, and the barista (actually, the manager of the shop - someone new with too much enthusiasm) asked for my name to put it on my cup so they could bring it to me.

My name is not that complicated. Suzanne. Not Susan. Not Suanne. Not Betty. But for some reason, people have trouble with it, so if someone gets close, I respond. After the manager had someone else make my coffee, the someone else brought it to me. She said something that resembled my name, and I took my drink, only to realize with one look that it wasn't mine. It belonged to the girl next to me, who almost panicked when she realized I'd gotten her drink.

Calm. Down.

I handed it to the neighbor, who hastily grabbed it without a thank-you and turned her attention back to some notebook she was writing in. My drink came out shortly afterward, still with the wrong name attached, and I couldn't help but wonder if this whole process was really necessary. Does the barista need my name, and does everyone in the coffee shop need to know it when they call it out, trying to find the right customer for each cup of java? Wouldn't it be better to just have a pickup station, like Starbucks, and instead of calling out my name, call out the name of the drink you just made? If it's not my drink, I don't make the mistake of testing it to find that out, and everyone in the shop doesn't have to know my name, and I don't have to flag you down as you wander the shop looking for a home for the drink you made.

I guess it's some marketing thing - trying to give it the personal touch and make me think you know me and want a personal relationship with me so I'll always come to your shop and consider myself a "regular." Well, this isn't Cheers and I'm not Norm. I just want my coffee and my privacy. And you're not going to get my name right anyway, so all you really do is annoy me. Let's go back to our old, anti-social relationship, coffee shop. I order. I pay. You make it. You hand it to me. And that's it. We know nothing about one another and like it that way.