Rookie

When we were up in San Jose, visiting family and meeting my little sister's in-laws for the first time, we had decided to catch a late movie. We were going to watch my boyfriend, Johnny Depp, light up the movie screen in his portrayal of John Dillinger in Public Enemies. Anyway, this movie theater that we visited was pretty unique. Not only could you buy your standard movie fare (popcorn, candy, hot dogs, slurpees and sodas), you could also buy a STARBUCKS coffee. Yes! Not just coffee... STARBUCKS, my friends! We were so excited! We all wondered, why don't ALL movie theaters do this? It soon became evident why not.

My brother-in-law was in front of me in line ordering a drink for my sister - an ICED white mocha. For those of you who do not know, cold drinks are usually served like this:

So the kid behind the counter takes the order and goes to the back table to make the drink. I notice the kid standing there, with his back to us, as though he's deep in thought. He's reading off a piece paper, which I assume was instructions on how to make an iced coffee. I make a comment to my BIL that it didn't really look like he knew what he was doing and we just laugh it off - hahahahahahaha! Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the kid comes over to us and hands my BIL the drink. BUT it is in this cup:

For those of you who don't know, that's the cup they use for HOT drinks. No biggie. We assumed that they ran out of the clear cups that iced drinks are usually served it.

Now it's my turn and I order a Carmel Macchiato. This, my friends, is a hot drink. The kid goes to the back, stands there for awhile, scratches his head, starts concocting and after another eternity passes, he turns around and puts my cup down on the counter in front of me. My HOT drink is in this cup:

One of his co-workers happens to be near by and asks, "Is that a HOT drink???" and the kid says, "Yeah". She asks, "Why is it in THAT cup??" and he says, "What? It's my first day!" She says to me, "Um... well, if your cup starts to melt, come back and we'll give you a new drink." By this time, our movie has already started so we grab our drinks and head off. I can barely hold my plastic cup, it's so hot, and I have no idea how I'm going to actually drink it (through a straw?) The whole time, we are all CRACKING UP! Oh my gawd, I thought it was the funniest thing ever! And when I was finally able to drink my coffee, it tasted more like milk than coffee. But worth it for the great laugh!

I was reminded of this story because I went to a real, deal Starbucks this morning. The white chocolate mocha I ordered tastes like pure sugar. It's so sweet it's making me gag and giving me a headache. I can excuse the movie theater employee who didn't know how to make a Starbucks coffee - I'm sure that wasn't part of the prerequisites of being hired - but it's hard to excuse a Starbucks barsita. If I had to choose right now, the movie theater Starbucks hot coffee in the plastic cup might be the winner.