stan and the venti coffee man...

this week there have been two separate, unrelated incidents that have restored my faith in humanity...I mean it's not like my faith was in shambles, but it is always nice to have it strengthened!

stan

This week, as I drove to California for my first of many trips, I felt as though my car was swerving a bit more than it should. But the road had been newly paved and I assumed it hadn't been properly pounded down by the huge steam roller thing. I approached Quartzite (and drove through it in a flash because it is approximately 2 exits) and kept ignoring my swerving car...until I passed the last exit and was about a half mile out of town and my tire popped. Luckily, I had been scared enough by my swerviness that I hadn't been driving that fast and it wasn't too traumatic (let's be honest Matt, my mom and my dad would beg to differ as it took me three minutes through sobbing tears to explain that I had not been in a fiery car crash but was on the side of the road with a flat...my first flat ever). 

After what seemed like a lifetime of waiting on the side of the road having no idea what to do, and while on the phone with a husband who was basically unable to come to my rescue, I heard a tiny horn honk. I looked behind me and saw a disheveled man with one button on his shirt properly buttoned and dirty feet and approximately five teeth in his mouth and a duct taped on windshield walking toward my car. My wave of sobs was so intense that he informed me to take a breath because, in his words, "I was actually scaring him!"

I quickly learned that this man's name was stan, that he had a tire blow out on him the week before, that he always kept a cooler with ice water in his trunk, that he ate sour patch kids, that his father had just passed away and he was on his way visit his widowed mother in Indio. 

He was so kind as to take me to a tire store, wait for two hours with me while the tire store took their sweet time to switch my rim from one tire to the next because the man in front of us complained about how long it was taking so, naturally, that translated to 'take longer please' and he took me back to my car and changed my tire. 

No kidnapping. No funny business. Just a passerby who was willing to help a stranded driver.

doug, i think

So I just moved to a new store and am still learning the customer's names and drinks but I am pretty sure this man's name is Doug. Doug, I think, works from home (or Starbucks) and sits at our store for hours while doing his work and ordering refills on coffee...which is fine with me because he actually abides by our refill policy and doesn't bring in a six-day-old-crusty-cup-with-red-lip-stick-on-the-rim-claiming-that-it-was-his...yes, your local baristas have seen pretty much every attempt at penny pinching. 

But Doug is different. Last week, as is custom for many days, Doug ordered his coffee and sat. A few hours and a few refills later, Doug was packed up for the day and ready to leave...but not with out one last cup of joe. He came up to the counter and asked for one more venti coffee. I informed the barista at the register, who had just clocked on for the day, that she should only charge him for a refill because he had previously ordered a beverage. 

This is where it gets good....

Without blinking an eye, he said, "no, no, no...I need to pay full price for this one. This is for my wife, not for me so I need to be charged." 

Shocking? I thought so...because it reminded me that there are still people with integrity in this world, driving the roads and ordering coffee.