An elderly woman (late 70s, early 80s) came into the coffee shop I work at to order two frappuccinos for her and her granddaughter who was waiting outside. I was working on something else and didn’t take her order, but I thought it was sweet they were on a little outing together.
The problem arose when her order came out and she was upset to find one of her drinks was wrong. She insisted on what she had ordered (a combination of two fraps) but we had made what she asked for. It just wasn’t what she wanted.
Because of my former work, I’ve dealt with a lot of elderly and I realized what was happening. She had ordered her usual order of a caramel frap but then had ordered her granddaughter’s drink as a strawberry-caramel-frap. Some older folks won’t recall the meaning of words as readily as they used to. To her, her usual order of “caramel frap” justmeant “frap.” So the color was off (because it had coffee in it) and she noticed that it was different than what she wanted. She probably didn’t even realize she was saying “caramel” when ordering the strawberry frap.
A barista made her order for her, a regular strawberry frap, while a few of us chatted with her about her day. By the time she left, the anxiety of receiving the wrong drink was gone and she was laughing.
And it makes me feel great that we were able to give her that experience today. In a fast paced environment like the coffee shop, it can be difficult to really listen to customers, especially those who aren’t able to communicate clearly at times. I’m grateful that my team had the time and space to solve the miscommunication with compassion and understanding so that the customer didn’t have to carry that frustration with her for the rest of the day.
It’s a shame that the way labor is managed in the food/bev industry has changed and is continuing to change in ways that mean we can’toffer that to everyone. When you’re handling 100+ orders per hour, there is no way to reasonably expect a minimum wage employee to have the bandwidth for those sort of conversations.
And, not to talk myself in a circle, but it’s human to want to be compassionate. I’m proud to work with such kind people, but it is absolutelynot their job to extend that to all customers. So the fact that “good customer service” demands they be understanding and nice to everyoneis actually gross, especially considering the insane volume of work they’re expected to juggle on top of that.
Working in this coffee shop is like going through a villain origin story every single day.
I got a couple of asks regarding the Ziz Bird as a potential relative of the griffin, so here’s my 2 cents: (Also please keep in mind that none of the original descriptions actually specify a griffin-like creature; I’m not even sure where that came about) The Ziz, also known as the roc (and some have argued the Thunderbird, but this is highly debatable) is the largest of all flying dragons, with a wingspan averaging at around 45 feet, but large individuals reaching upwards of 50. Almost nothing was known of their distribution, habits, or reproduction for millennia; for, understandably, this is a creature adapted so completely to life on the wing that it has lost the ability to take off from level ground entirely. Even today they are difficult to find and study, as most of their near-endless flight is spent over open ocean. They are primarily piscivores, and follow the movements of schooling fish, which they skim from the surface of the water. Interestingly, certain individuals have also been observed to target large bird colonies, where they pick out birds from the massive flocks as if hunting fish. One of the most famous places to observe this incredible sight is in Israel, a massive stopover for migrating birds and a Mecca for birdwatchers and dragonologists alike. Every summer they converge from all over the world at their breeding ground in the mountains of Northern Pakistan, though other roosting sites (of subspecies) are known at the Faroe Islands and in parts of Canada. What do these places have in common? Only among the tallest, sheerest cliffs in the world. Only at such steep inclines do these creatures ever roost, hooking onto the rock with strong claws to wait for their mate. Research suggests that they are monogamous; though they only meet once a year, mated pairs find each other with distinctive calls. They may also renew their mating ritual, which consists of a tandem dance of circling and divebombs. The male then clambers over the female as she hangs from the vertical rock face for intercourse. The mated pair remain at their roost for about a month, wherein they take leave shortly after the female gives birth. Ziz are among the only viviparous dragons, wherein the female carefully deposits her single chick on the back of the male and takes off. It is the male’s duty to carry the chick safely to the sea, so it may set out on its own from a safe altitude and close to food. Chicks will remain at sea until they are grown at 6 years. They can live as long as 50 years. As with many of earth’s wonders, the Ziz has experienced a steady decline over recent decades due to overfishing and climate change.
Now remember, a lady rides sidesaddle, NOT astride. Your mother would be in hysterics at the very idea that a daughter of hers would ride a werewolf astride! Why, next you’ll be showing ankle…
That’s not how you ride a werewolf ill show you how to ride a werewolf !!
[ID: 1: cao wei ning walks over to gu xiang’s side as they smile at each other. 2: wei ning smiles fondly as xiang grins and leans towards him. 3: they stand together, staring off-camera. END ID]
do you think this is what lovecraft meant whenever he described something as being beyond description
“It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train—a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter.”
— H. P. Lovecraft,
At the Mountains of Madness
This.. actually makes a fine reference to what a lovecraftian eldritch abomination SHOULD BE. not just.. tentacles and darkness. Perpetually changing, not cemented in form, with an otherworldly feel to it. Completely unrecognizable by most human descriptions, and only able to be viable perceived by those fine enough to be an adept wordsmith.
“…Furthermore,he always dances with her one more time than is considered de rigueur. Considering how many husbands don’t like to dance with their wives at all, this is romantic stuff, indeed.” - LADY WHISTLEDOWN’S SOCIETY PAPERS, 10 JUNE 1814
Julia Quinn, The Viscount Who Loved Me (Bridgertons, #2)
