D-Town, Motor City, Motown

when i started telling people i was going to detroit this weekend, the most popular response was, "What's in Detroit?"

the short answer is: my friend kelli is getting married in detroit, so i'm going to attend the wedding.

but it got me thinking about detroit. and how i really don't know anything about it. so here, i share with you...

Detroit...

• is home to the Motown sound founded by Berry Gordy Jr. in 1957
• installed the first mile of paved concrete road, just north of the Model T plant, on Woodward Avenue between McNichols and 7 Mile Roads in 1909
• installed the country’s first traffic light in 1915 in downtown Detroit
• built the nation’s first urban freeway, the Davison, in 1942
• is home to the oldest state fair in the nation, first held in 1849
• is the potato chip capital of the world, based on consumption
• has country’s largest island park within a city – Belle Isle Park
• is home to the world’s only floating post office, the J.W. Westcott II, can be found on the Detroit River
• is north of Canada
• is home to the largest flower-bedding market in the world – Eastern Market
• is second in the nation in fishing rod sales
• shares the world’s first auto traffic tunnel between two nations – the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel
• is home to the second tallest hotel in North America – the Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center, at 73 stories
• is the true home of the “Boston Cooler”
• is also home to Vernors ginger ale, Sanders hot fudge, Better Made Potato Chips, Faygo soda pop, Stroh’s Ice Cream
• receives freighters from over 100 world ports on the Detroit River
• has the most registered bowlers in the United States
• was the first city in the nation to assign individual telephone numbers in 1879
• founded the world’s first convention bureau in 1896
• has more theater seats than any other city, east of the Mississippi River, outside New York City


I ask you: how could i have resisted taking a trip to a city that boasts "Most Registered Bowlers in the United States?"

be nice to your barista

i've been going to the same starbucks now for over a year. it is located directly across the street from my office, usually has a line out the door, and is WAY too small to be the only starbucks in a ten block radius. usually i see the same people in there everyday, barring an additional patron or two (or five--they travel in packs, you know). generally everyone is patient, mild tempered and keeps to themselves.

this morning was the exception. now, i've worked customer service in a busy grocery store. i know what people can be like. but to be a barista is to put yourself in the way of people who haven't had their morning coffee. that's a dangerous place to be. i'm barely awake when i saunter in and find that i'm thankful that they know what i'm drinking and can get it started so that i don't have to say it. putting words together is hard before that first sip. but this morning...man. i've witnessed some pretty harsh people - but this woman was the worst. i didn't hear what she ordered, but the moment she started complaining i turned off my ipod (kept my earbuds in so that she wouldn't look to me for complainers comfort) and began to listen to the drama unfolding before me...

there was some issue about her drink being the wrong size. did they size it down and give her a grande instead of a venti? NO. they gave her a VENTI instead of a grande. she got upsized. for no extra charge. any decent human being would gloat in that fact and grab their cup and run. but not her. no sir. no way. she proceeded to reem out my lovely baristas for no reason. so they remade her drink (aka poured it into a grande cup). but this was not good enough. she wanted them to REMAKE it. and they did. but i left before that transpired.

i didn't realize how much i liked my baristas until that woman started being mean to them. they're just trying to make your coffee. and pay their bills. be nice to them. they control your drink. if you die of arsenic poisoning...you'll know it's because the barista doesn't like being spoken to like an incompetent 4 year old. im just sayin...

unrequited office love

no, not mine.