The Starbucks Story

I read here that Mark Twain once said "I can live for two months on a good compliment" and I was reminded of a story from a long time ago -

There was a Starbucks opposite where I worked, and a guy (G1*) there used to have so much fun trying to get my name right. One time he took my order and started writing my name on the cup for the other guy to make my coffee - and then since he got one letter wrong - he threw that cup away and started afresh.

A few days later, there was a new guy (G2*) who took my order and asked for my name.
I pointed to G1 and said "Maybe you should ask him - I'm sure he knows it by now"
-t0 which G1 replied "Oh, I just call her 'beautiful'"
G2 smiled and said "Ok 'beautiful' it is then!" - and wrote "beautiful" on a cup for my Chai latte.

(After I drank my Chai I rinsed that cup clean and used it as a pen holder for close to 6 months)

* - G1 & G2 - must be all the Math I've been doing.

Don't mess with me in Math Class...

...or any social situation that involves numbers and a problem to solve.

I was in project management training today where we learnt about estimating schedules. Everything was fine - all of us were nodding seriously to everything the instructor said, highlighting every third word and so on.

Suddenly he said something about an exercise. That involved looking at a diagram of different activities that made up a project, the dependencies between them and the time needed for each activity. We had to calculate what the shortest time to finish the project was.

I picked up my pencil and it was like I was possessed. I could feel the adrenaline rush. For the next couple of minutes my hand moved frantically across the page till I was done. I put down my pencil and looked up. I saw a room full of people still poring over their notebooks with a look of confusion.

And I smiled. The smile of the geek who loved her high school math textbook almost as much as she loved her copy of "Heidi" and "The Secret Garden".

Wouldn't / Shouldn't / Couldn't

I read this a long time ago and thought of it every time I cleared out the “drafts” folder in my email inbox. Today I did that again and decided it was time to finally say all those things I wouldn’t / shouldn’t / couldn’t say before:

Maybe you should have married him instead.

Maybe you should have married her instead.

Stop whining already.

I’m jealous of you.

I know what he said.

I wish I wrote to you more.

I wish you wrote to me more.

I don’t like that we’re not talking anymore.

Just because I don’t call you on it doesn’t mean I don’t know you’re lying.

What happened?

I really like you.

I wish I could tell you how hurt I am.

I don’t like you. I just (barely?) pretend to.

I can’t believe you said that.