I am a gregarious person. I thrive off of time spent with others. I have become more aware of this in the past year as I work at home, alone most days.
It’s unnerving. It’s difficult. It’s so DAD-BLASTED lonely.
I’m no longer a drinker or a smoker so my brand of vice is a cup of coffee in a coffee shop with people working and talking and moving around me.
And let me tell you the God’s honest truth… I’ve probably spent way too much money in the coffee shops over the last year. Mostly for the reason of being an outgoing, gregarious extravert working at home alone with a couple of dogs.
All that said, the place if find myself mostly is the Starbucks at Nipper’s Corner in Nashville, TN. Not as much because I love their coffee or even sear by their coffee. I’m about the furthest thing from a coffee snob. I’ll just as soon take a cup of instant coffee as I will a such and so poor over bathed in the heated waters of Peruvian love.
I honestly don’t know what that last thing meant. Just saying I’ll drink any cup of coffee you put in front of me. So long as there ain’t no hooch in it.
This brings me to a caffeinated #thisiscrazylove2016 today.
Ashley is the one in front pointing at you right now.
In said Starbucks I frequent is a staff of folks that just make my heart happy. I could and might actually write about each and every one of them by the time this whole year of love in an elevate your friends thing ends. Today though I will celebrate the one at the helm of this great group of people. Today I give my crazy love to Ashley Buishas.
I met Ashley some time in the last year or so when she took the reigns of the aforementioned Starbucks. Maybe it has been two years. Wow, I can’t quite remember. Not that it is pivotal to the story, just letting my fingers type in a free writing sort of way.
(By the way, for those of you new to this year long adventure, allow me to remind you that this whole experiment of sharing love to a different person each day for a year by way of this blog also serves a way to stay disciplined in writing every day whether I feel it or not. I do not edit these. I do not read over them thirty times looking for a better way to order the sentences. I just write freely, check very quickly to make sure none of the autocorrects produced curse words, hit send and hope the person I’m sharing love with for the day feels the love I sent.)
Back to Ashley Buishas.
Everytime… I MEAN EVERY TIME I come into Starbucks and she is working she presents herself in an upbeat, positive fashion. Now, I’ve worked retail. I know that the world of retail is not all wine and roses… More like whine and no sirs.
Yet, in the midst of “end of the world because you didn’t put that extra whip or enough sprinkles on the top of my Half caff, triple pump, white-chocolate CappuMochaLatte such and so” she remains positive and upbeat.
Qualities I might add that are ABSOLUTELY needed as a leader.
The other thing I love and appreciate about Ashley is that she always spells my name in the most unique and bizarre ways.
We had a conversation over a year ago about how I am “S T U A R T” not “S T E W A R T” and how that drove me a little crazy. So, what does Ashely do? She spells my name with a myriad of extra letters, most often letters that would have no place in the pronunciation of my name.
Case in point... Apparently the e, g and h are psilenxt on this cup.
I love that humor. I love that connection point made where she read the situation, found a way to bring joy to a customer and continues it on a daily or weekly basis (depending on my allotment for Starbucks for the week.)
And what I love most about this awesome woman is that I’m not the only person she does this for. In a not so creepy way I have been eaves dropping on the experiences she’s had with the folks walking up to the register today and I see there is an awareness of people and their situations.
The point is, SHE CARES. She genuinely cares. And for that I give my #thisiscrazylove2016 to Ashley and want nothing but the best for her in life.