Attitude of Gratitude V2#4 – Starbucks

Shift Eight, Shift Four

Aka *$

Aka “star” “bucks”.

It’s a stretch. I know. But it’s more interesting than just titling this post “Starbucks” or “the Wednesday Night Coffee Crew” which is what really applies. Anyways, enough silliness. I do want to post about our Wednesday night group.

Attitude of Gratitude V2#4 – Starbucks

If you read my $7.13 a day blog you’ve probably noticed a pattern. Most Wednesday’s after church a group of us go out for coffee. 90% of the time it’s Starbucks (and you thought all Canadian’s drank Tim Hortons!) We do go to Timmy’s on occasion, usually when someone is starving and the pastries at Starbucks just aren’t going to cut. We find that we like the atmosphere of Starbucks over Timmy’s though. Plus, the staff there have come to expect us and they are really tolerant of us rearranging the tables and chairs when necessary in order to accommodate a larger group. Of course we always put everything back. A few weeks ago there was a train shuttling across our normal route between the church and Starbucks. Everyone else waited but I went the long way around. I went up to the counter to order and the barista asked “by yourself tonight?”. Everyone else ended up joining me, but my drink was half gone by the time the train passed!

The “group” fluctuates. There’s a basic core of us but not everyone comes every week. For the most part we are the “unmarried”, childless individuals of the church between the ages of 17 and 30, give or take. It’s kind of our unofficial “youth group” although there’s no leader and no set agenda. Often we’ll discuss what we heard in church but it’s not a structured debrief by any means. Lots of other topics come up as well, from school, to work (or the search for work), travel plans, etc. Mostly it’s just a time to get together and chat, with no expectations.

We usually arrive by 9:30 and Starbucks closes at 11 so we’re gone by then. In the summer we tended to stand around outside and chat longer but now that it’s cold and rainy we all scatter pretty quickly. Once in August we got our drinks and then went out to a school on a dark prairie road and watched the meteor shower.

I don’t always feel like going out but I try and join the group if they are going because I know I’m going to miss this casual connection when I move. This group has grown closer as a result of these dates and for that, I am thankful.