there are lots of things i could write about, lot's of little episodes that i have seen played before my eyes that are filled with either beauty or tragedy or sometimes both, depending which way you look at it. but for some reason, i don't want to write about any of those things, instead i want to write about anthony.
anthony is my new manager at starbucks. well, assistant manager anyway. if anyone has ever seen the british t.v. show the office, then they can skip the following descriptive passage. anthony is a thinner, younger, ricky gervais. i thought my first impression ahd been wrong, that nobody could be that spot-on, but it was all too true.
whenever i start work he gets all excited and says "hey hey hey, danielle, do you know what is the number one objective for today?" and without waiting for me to respond, he thrusts his fist into the air and says: "to have FUN!". and then he tries to get me to do this weird hang loose wiggledy handshake with him, but i usually just lamely give him a little tap with my knuckles. i don't know what to do in the face of his boundless enthusiasm for starbucks.
what makes it worse is that he is pretty bad at his job and extremely insecure about it. sometimes when he makes drinks people bring them back and i have to remake them without his realizing because if he does realize it he follows me around for the next half an hour analyzing out loud why the customer didn't like his drink. or take tonight, for instance. he thought the till counting machine had gone berserk, and he was freaking out about having to call tech support and how we weren't ever going to get out of here and geez i don't know what to do and could you come look at it danielle? so i went in the back and he explained how he had unplugged it and plugged it back in and nothing. nothing happened. i looked at the machine, and pressed the "on" button. gentle readers, he expressed amazement at my technical prowress for the rest of the evening.
as much as i can hardly stand to work with him (he literally follows me around and reads out loud from the starbucks corperate policy manual. literally.), i can't help but feel that there is some sort of purpose behind me and him working together so often.
anythony has this habit of spilling his guts to me. we've talked about it before, and he brought it up again tonight: he hates christianity. he used to be a hardcore christian: he was a youth intern, he attended a charismatic mega-church, he even went downtown regularly to witness to homeless people. and then he just stopped. he couldn't stomache it anymore.
the man obviously needs to talk about his past life as a christian, and i don't know why he chose me. i always pray to the holy spirit in times like these to give me wisdom, and he always pulls through. i usually end up asking a lot of questions, and saying fewer profound statements that i would like. but, you have to work with what you have been given. one of my gifts is the ability to feign interest and ask pointed questions.
anyways, the point is, i finally got anthony to tell me why he was so bitter at the church, and it all boiled down to one thing: he thought god had lied to him. he told me his sad story (growing up and wanting to be a medical missionary, having his fiance break up with him, getting horrible grades his senior year of college and not being able to make it into medical school) and i told him mine. except i ended mine with where it is at: i still love christ with everything within me. i don't have a rational explanation, i just do. i love him because he first loved me, and i know that someday soon i will understand all the twists, turns, and disappointments that seem to be a prerequisite of the honest christian life.
to make a long blog semi-shorter, anthony said he had a lot to think about tonight. so do i. mainly, why does comfort always have to be preceded by suffering?
i guess i'll let everyone know when i figure out the answer.
then you'll be happy.
