Why does a place with hissing and whirring sounds calm me and keep me more focused than I am at home?

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So, Starbucks is one of those magical places that keeps us wanting more and more and more and more.:) Or, at least me and millions of other people. I had lunch at a neighborhood supermarket with my daughter and then we walked around in the snow a bit more and then we hopped into the car and drove to Starbucks. We were at home and I could have sat on my bed to make a call to the insurance company. But instead, I drove a mile and a half to our favorite Starbucks (there are 10 in a 10 mile radius) to do what I could have done more comfortably at home.

Then I spent over 3 dollars on my drink. And then I spent almost 4 dollars on a breakfast sandwich for my daughter and I to share. Then she read a book and I checked some emails. All things I could have done at home. But something about the dark wood, and the nice and subtle lighting, and the pleasing tunes wafting ever so softly in the background mesmerizes me. It is like an addiction of sorts.

People could say it is the caffeine, or the taste of the coffee, or the trendiness of it all. But I think it is the whole package. I could drink caffeine/coffee at home. It is not hard to make a bacon, egg and gouda sandwich at home. I actually drink faux coffee. So, I think it is a type of voodoo they have over the masses.

The same kind of voodoo that Disney puts on people when visiting their parks. That is why we are going back again this year. Despite the cost, the travel aggravation, the lines, there is no place like Disney. We do believe it is the happiest place on earth, except for of course our little abode. Even the people that go to Disney are less annoying than they are at other places. Or, is it part of the trance Disney puts me under?:)

Funnily enough, as much as I love those places, I love being at home too. The familiarity of surroundings,my cat, the material items and mementos that take me back to certain experiences that mean something to me. I guess now that I think about it, Sbux and Disney have captured the magic of the home away from home experience but in a grand way. But when it comes down to it,home, Disney and Starbucks hold something in common: Beauty,comfort, memories, happiness, and sharing precious time with people that we love. Those things are more important than the aesthetics or psychology in the advertisements. A price can’t be put on experiences and memories…

Simply~

Dee

Poetry can be found everywhere and in many things, even in blogging…

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I was watching one of my new favorite spy shows today on my Amazon-The Americans, and I realized that the Russian language can be very beautiful and even poetic sounding. I was in the shower and listening to it and I think if I had been watching the people and listening, I would not have picked up on the beauty.

I always thought that Russian and German and many of the Eastern European languages sounded a bit harsh, with no melody. And, I am not against those people or anything, I am of German heritage. I just never thought that they held the romance that French or Italian does. Then, I heard someone speaking Russian at Barnes and Noble one day and I thought that it was French. I guess maybe different regions speak it in different ways with different accents. Very similar to the way that the U.S. is with Northern accents, Southern accents and Midwestern accents.

So between that day and this television show, I realized that if we listen close enough or even look close enough that poetry and beauty is all around us in so many situations. That person that angrily beeped when you didn’t go through the light fast enough could be coming from the house of her sister who has dementia and maybe she in a hurry to get to her job to help pay the bills for them both. Or, that annoying person that answers for an insurance company when calling about claims that has a thick accent and can’t seem to understand anything, she/he is working for nickels and learning English in the process and for them it is a great feat.

I am sometimes the person honking the horn, and I am sometimes the one who gets annoyed. In the midst of my annoyance, I truly do try to think of people and though they may seem selfish or dense, who knows what is going on in their life. There are tons of things that happen where ugly and evil are written all over these particular incidents. But somehow, in the midst of a storm in life, you will hear something beautiful. Like the mom who forgave the person who killed her son. Or the person that risked their life to get one more person out of the burning building. I do not know how I spun hearing the Russian language spoken on a show into all of this. Nevertheless, beauty and poetry are everywhere, and our creator is the author and artist of it all.

Simply~

Dee