Impressive.

You know who excels in the art of multitasking?

Starbucks employees.

They operate like a well-oiled machine back there... everybody does their thing. And always more than one thing.

I watched thed artful dance as I waited for my Grande-Raspberry-Mocha-No-Whip.

There is so much happening, and so much of it is verbal. The computer is the only one with documentation of what I ordered; the rest of the staff simply listens and responds. One friendly guy takes my order, spouts it off jovially to the girl across the way, who repeats it back to him in confirmation, even though she is making an entirely different drink for a very different person with very different specifications. Still. She finishes the task at hand (or the drink in hand), keeps in mind the one to come, and takes an order from the drive-thru on the side via the microphone in her ear.

She stays on top of it all. They all do. It's a mystery how they don't end up with extra drinks or not enough.

And then someone hands me my steamy favorite, complete with a handy-dandy coffee sleeve, and thanks me for ordering it. As if the making of my beverage was truly the highlight of the day.

Unbelievable. No wonder they are the rulers of the coffee empire.

It's a job to sharpen the senses... I suspect that once one has masterfully worked at Starbucks, there is little one cannot manage.

Perhaps I should invite them to fix dinner at my house while the boys are melting down and daddy is arriving home and diapers need changed and the table needs set and the pot is boiling over and I just stepped on a matchbox car and who left it there anyway and my cell phone is ringing and the dog just snatched a dish towel and Tucker is helping himself to the ice dispenser and Tyler is climbing the shelves of the pantry and I can't remember why the timer is beeping or maybe it's the microwave or perhaps the cell phone again.

They would probably thank me. It would probably be the highlight of their day.