You Get What you Pay For

When my husband picks up a drink for me, it sometimes
comes with little notes from the baristas who made it.

Last week, I was sitting at my favorite Starbucks -- the one where I know all the baristas except the newest hire -- and an off-duty barista sat down at the table beside mine. She was working on an assignment for school -- an interview -- and asked if I'd mind being one of her interviewees. Since the topic was Starbucks' Frappucino Happy Hour, I figured I could speak reasonably intelligently, so I agreed.

Somehow -- I don't remember whether it was through a direct question she asked, or the conversation we had as a result -- we came back to the value for the price question. This is the one that stumps me whenever I'm asked about it in a customer satisfaction survey and whenever I consider the splurge that is my daily Starbucks habit. No matter how frugal I am in other aspects of my life, I still plunk down more than $4 a day at my local Starbucks. I refuse to do the math in any serious fashion because even without crunching the numbers, I realize there are so many things I could buy if I simply quit my Starbucks habit.

And yet I don't. I love my Starbucks (the drink), my Starbucks (the place) and my Starbucks baristas. It's one of my few indulgences.

But it was only when I went off-topic and told this young woman (as I tell everyone) how much I like Starbucks' customer service model that it began to dawn on me. Something I should have figured out a long time ago.

It's all tied to the price of the drink.

Enthusiasm and encouragement are
never in short supply :-)

Sure, it costs nothing to be nice, and my Starbucks baristas have that in spades. But Starbucks takes care of its employees (or "partners," as the company calls them). They get health insurance, company stock and educational opportunities, along with the typical food service product freebies that help to offset the disadvantages of a job where you work as hard as a barista does. And they earn more than minimum wage.

That's why my daily drink costs more than $4.

When I plunk down that chunk of change -- or, more accurately, use the bar code on my phone -- I'm helping to improve the life of the person behind the counter. I'm contributing to the fact that she has health insurance for her family, that he can go to college, that she can advance in the company that hired her and invests in her training.

And I like that idea. After all, considering how well they treat me, it seems only fair to return the favor. And it seems really sad that all companies don't want to invest in the very people who are creating their success.

So, the next time I fill out one of those surveys, I'll have to think a bit more about my value for the price rating. Sure, I'd like it if my daily drink cost less.

But would I really like it if my barista friends suffered because of it?

Where to Write

Photo credit: Luis Llerena via unsplash.com

More than twenty years ago, I left a full-time job as a school counselor in one district to take a part-time job as a school counselor in a neighboring district. A foreshadowing of decision that I'd make nearly twenty years later, it was the first step in pursuing my dream of writing for publication.

Actually, it was my sister who suggested that I use my newfound day off to write. Aside from her family and her own writing, it was one of the best ideas she ever had.

At first, I wrote at the dining room table in our apartment. To call it a "dining room" is generous; our scarred table and chairs took up most of the space in the eating area off the kitchen, but there was enough room for me and my word processor. I wrote articles for magazines, submitting them (unsolicited) to editors and receiving many rejection letters, but the occasional acceptances I found in the daily (snail) mail were enough to sustain my enthusiasm.

We bought a house a few years later, and I turned the downstairs bedroom into an office. The decor was a throwback to the 1970s, but I had an entire room to myself. Our first computer, complete with dial-up Internet access, soon graced the desk, rendering my word processor obsolete.

Then came motherhood. Initially, my office became a dumping ground for all things deemed off-limits to a baby, but then, a few years later, we turned the room into a playroom. The desk was relegated to the basement, my books replaced by my daughter's books, my photos put aside as her artwork graced the walls. Finding writing time was hard, and while that bothered me a little, my writing time quickly became less important than my mommy time.

Eventually, we enclosed a side porch off the living room, a decision my daughter has still not completely forgiven me for. In so doing, we created a new office, one we all shared at first. Over time, the room became my writing space, although I probably wrote just as frequently in other places -- sometimes at Starbucks, but most often in the car, while waiting for my daughter to finish an activity. Those were the years that taught me how to write in small snippets of time.

The office has continued to evolve, and it's truly my space now, but being home alone on weekdays has made me more nomadic. Some days I write in the office, but I'm also likely to work in the living room, the playroom (now a man cave) or at my trusty standby, the dining room table. Other days, I go to Starbucks where I can get away from all the distractions of home, and I can work on only what I've packed in my bag.

The places have changed. The tools have changed. Even the genres have changed.

But the writing has remained constant.

New on the Porch Swing: 5 Questions

Photo: Ashley Schweitzer via minimography.com

Sometimes, a confluence of factors inspires an idea. Last week, inspired by my friend Cerella Sechrist's Heartwarming blog, the generosity of the folks at ir-on-ic in downtown York and my own Christmas shopping dilemmas, I came up with the idea of once again featuring authors here on my blog. I've done this before, but it's been a while, and, like me, many of these friends have released new books since their last visit.

So today, I'm launching my 5 Questions feature. Between now and the end of the year, you can expect to see a few of these a week, and, if I still have author interest in January, you'll see them once a week. The faces and the titles will change, but the questions will be the same, giving you a chance to find out a little about the people behind the books.

That's my goal, in fact. Sure, I'll post book covers, but this feature is less about selling books and more about letting you get to know the people who write them.

Since being the author of the blog should come with some perks, I'm launching the feature with my answers to the five questions.

What have you written? I have four published books: two nonfiction and two novels. The nonfiction books (Acting Assertively and Diverse Divorce) both grew out of my teaching experiences. The novels (Casting the First Stone and Chasing a Second Chance) are connected by the same cast of characters, and, while I'll readily call Chasing a Second Chance the sequel to Casting the First Stone, I haven't yet decided if the Marita-Angel-Charli story is finished, or if it will continue.

What do you read? Since I started teaching at the college level, most of what I read is nonfiction, and connected to psychology in some way. I look forward to breaks when I have the opportunity to pick up a novel or two.

Why do you write? I have loved to write ever since Miss Lee introduced me to creative writing when I was in seventh grade. She was my first encourager.

Fun writing factoid (not technically a question, I know): The protagonist's best friend in the novel I'm getting ready to revise is reacting very badly to the fact that I need to change her name. Although she doesn't love the first name I gave her, she has, so far, refused to accept any other moniker. She's turning out to be even feistier than I thought she was.

One more thing: Authors are awesome. They're generous, talented, funny and a great support network for one another. That's why it's so fun to invite them to my blog.

My favorite Starbucks 
is allowing me to host 
a book celebration at their store on 
December 27 from 4 - 6 pm. 

Stop by if you can.