Why Routines are Brutal.

It's more brutal then getting a spinal tap by a drunken monkey. I'll tell you why, from the aspect from the guy behind the counter. Routines are so dangerous to your mental health for reasons that can only be observed from a guy like me. I'll tell you, I work at a major fast food company, there are thousands of these shops, I won't say which, but we sell coffee, and it begins and ends with an "S".

I see these on a daily basis, early in the morning, about eight (keep in mind: I'm up at three) when rushes of the city of Chicago start pouring into my shop like cattle into a pen. One by one, they line up without any cohesive structure and in dead silence while droned out to music which is blaring yet so docile in timbre, already mumbling their orders to themselves. Meanwhile (even more dangerous) the crew behind the counter is already picking out people and making their orders before they're even ordered. That's right, coming in so many times has upped them to "regular" status, and have their drinks simply made, never spoken. They dolefully reach into their pockets, getting cards, cash, whatever it may be, and like a Chicago prison system, in and out like a revolving door.

So with their drinks in tow, god only knows where they go, but they're gone, with their drink, their solace. Their solace? How does one take solace in the same exact flavor, from the same mediocre shop, the same place, at the same time? Perhaps it's a comfort activity, but so be it, I can understand. What I cannot fathom however, is the lack of humanity involved in the whole process. The quality of my job is the quantity, it's the truth. Argue to me that a twenty second completion time on any bar beverage is something worth craving? Even McDonald's (ruled out that possibility) has about a one minute wait time. The Coffee we serve is multi-regional, in other words, the quality is almost never the same, nor is it worth mentioning, major competitors such as Maxwell House, even Folger's uses multi-region blends, what volume does that speak in? Not that this is the actual point of my argument, I'm simply off topic.

The humanity of it: No talk, no wait, no speaking, no noises, no movement, almost no sentience. Is this safe? Is this how we should be? We're spending money on a commodity, we should be excited rather than exhausted, an ailing to watch. Time after time, not even eye contact is made, everything is small talk, everyone is sick and tired, reeking of gas and nicotine. The drinks are expensive (which creates a napoleon complex) and the wait is horrific after fourty-five seconds. Yet people delve the money out like it's not a big deal, these people return, with the same attitude, hours later.

My basic unfinished point: Stimulation via routine. It's like that drink at the same bar at the same time: indescribably boring and stimulating, nothing at all new, however, at least at the bar, you can gail about day rather than look forward to the horrors.