Customer ordered a large caramel latte and small honey vanilla latte, then ordered a plain bagel with sun dried tomato cream cheese and hot chicken sandwich. Attendant immediately forgot what was on the plain bagel and took next order, a familiar couple: a plain bagel with plain cream cheese and two everything bagels with veggie cream cheese and lox and a large vanilla latte with honey and a large caramel latte both hot and made with whole milk. Then another couple, which ordered two iced lattes, one small vanilla with honey and the other a medium of the same sort. In retrospect a racial diversity to these orders seems notable: the last order, two of Asian ethnicity; the middle couple, black/ white; the first order, Indian ethnicity. Apologized to the Asian couple that it had taken so long, their order having been something simple; had had to ask the Indian-Pakistani man what was on his companion’s bagel again; was kind of uneasy as I put veggi cream cheese on the young woman’s two everythinng bagels with lox…. I wasn’t going to ask, had to hope, have faith, “have faith in the veggie” (could it be she’d wanted plain?)
Customer B came in for a grilled cheese sandwich, immediately followed by customer T. I believe T has caught on that if you want your grilled cheese in the best possible condition when it’s busy it is important from time to time to remind the attendant of your continued existence. And that this was why, when customer S discussed “one of the Carradines” who had appeared in the movie Big Red One, he had actually stood up to share his own view on the Carradines.
What did customer, lifelong resident of the county, think of how it had changed over the years, for the better for the worse? Obviously for the worse because it had become so unaffordable. Costs were always going up while wages were the same. (So she didn’t care much about all the new shops and restaurants and having a Whole Foods and such?) No — those things were nice.
Customer thought her cat was getting tired of her. Customer’s expertise was in fire prevention, specifically sprinkler systems. Recent assignment at waste management center was something out of the ordinary.
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