Caribou Coffee!

A couple weeks ago, I was hired to be a barista at the Caribou Coffee being built inside the Oakland road HyVee. What is Caribou Coffee? Well I'd love to tell you so I can get some words out for the sake of a blog post.  Caribou Coffee Company is the second largest in the United States after Starbucks. Caribou sells coffee, tea, and bakery foods in 415 coffeehouses in 16 states. In 1990, on a trip to Denali National Park in Alaska, Caribou Coffee was imagined by newlyweds John and Kim Puckett. The couple raised money to start the first Caribou Coffee shop in Edina, Minnesota, in 1992. After several years of mixed performance, the Pucketts sold the company in 1998 for $120 million to Crescent Capital, which has since changed its name to Arcapita.
Since opening, the chain has expanded to 415 locations in 16 states, making it the second-largest operator of non-franchised coffeehouses in the United States, after Starbucks Corporation.Caribou maintains its headquarters and coffee-roasting facility in the Minneapolis metropolitan area.
Arcapita was Caribou Coffee's majority shareholder. In 2002 Yusuf al-Qaradawi's involvement with the bank led to a protest of Caribou Coffee. That same year al-Qaradawi stepped down as chairman of the bank's Sharia board. I read about this on Scopes, people were creating controversy and protesting because the main shareholder was an Israeli. On the Scopes entry of the email, people were saying all sorts of things like "how can we trust this company?" It kind of horrified me that people think that just because this company was partially owned by someone from a certain country that it isn't to be trusted.On September 28, 2005, Caribou Coffee became a publicly traded company. In 2011, Arcapita sold their shares of Caribou Coffee. As of September 30, 2011 no one entity owns more than 8% of Caribou's outstanding shares. On February 28, 2010, Caribou announced a corporate-wide re-branding, and began using their new "coffee bean caribou" logo officially on March 1, 2010

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So, I realized that I filled my word requirements for this week when I started writing a lot more for these past two posts than anticipated.  I know it's recommended that we write three, but in all honesty if I've already met the requirement I think it would just be a waste of my effort. I had a pretty good idea for what this was supposed to be about: my new job at Caribou Coffee. I could write A LOT about that because there is just so much to know and I'm sure there are lots of stories to be told once I start working there. Being a barista is fun. I'll save those posts for when I really need them. Ciao.

Friday the 13th (dun dun dun)

Today is Friday, April 13th. (well it was when I began this blog post, even though I didn't finish it until now) Nothing about today would normally be special, except that today is considered one of the unluckiest days of the year. Obviously this is just supersition, but everyone is still a little wary of today.
Why? Well after a little research on Wikipedia and other random google searches, I can give a basic backstory to why Friday the 13th is such a dreaded day.
In numerology (the study of numbers and their significance) the number twelve is considered a lucky number. There are 12 hours on the clock, 12 months in a year. The number twelve is often incorporated in religion. In Greek mythology, there were twelve gods that lived on Mount Olympus. In Abrahamic religions, there were 12 tribes of Israel (I don't know what that means exactly, but according to Wikipedia its a significant aspect of Christianity and Judism) There were 12 apostles of Jesus, and in Islam there were 12 succesors to Muhammad (again, I don't know the signifcance of this). The number 13 is considered unlucky because it offsets the good luck created by the number 12. Some believe that having 13 people seated at a table was unlucky and would result in the illness or death of one of those seated at the table.
Of all the days of the week, Friday is considered be more unlucky than any other day. This has a lot to do with biblical connections like Good Friday, the day Jesus was supposed to have died. Other dates surrounding plagues and acts of the wrath of god often are discovered to have occurred on Fridays based on specific translations. Translations from ancient texts often differ depending on the language and then whatever language it was translated into. This is where different versions of the bible have come from like the King James bible, which is probably the most read version.
The connection between the Friday the 13th superstition and the Knights Templar was popularized in Dan Brown's 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code. The Knights Templar were a group soldiers commissioned by the Pope during the bloody religious battles known as the crusades. There were many trained soldiers in the crusades, but none as specialized and mysterious as the Knights Templar. It is rumored that the Knights Templar were sent to Temple Mount in Jerusalem to retrieve the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant (a sacred chest containing the original ten commandments. The Knights were unable to retrieve the objects but were forever seen as mysterious and cult-like. On Friday, October 13th, 1307, the Knights Templar were arrested by the suggestion of the new Pope Clement and ordered by King Philip to relieve him of his debts to the Knights. With the blessing of the Pope, the Knights were convicted of random crimes such as  apostasy, idolatry, heresy, obscene rituals and homosexuality, financial corruption and fraud, and secrecy. Some Knights were sentenced to be burned at the stake, including Jacques de Molay. His final words are really creepy.

"Dieu sait qui a tort et a pëché. Il va bientot arriver malheur à ceux qui nous ont condamnés à mort" ("God knows who is wrong and has sinned. Soon a calamity will occur to those who have condemned us to death") 

I wish I could make dramatic statements like that.

Friday the Thirteenth became a date of note in Thomas W. Larson's novel, Friday the Thirteenth. In the novel, an economic panic based on the fear of this day on Wall Street allows a broker to take advantage of the system and make it rich. After reading this, the public as a whole began to recognize Friday the 13th as a date many were weary of.

Retro posters <3

Of course, we cant forget about the classic 1980 horror movie Friday the 13th. Produced by nearly the same group as the very successful (and scary) Halloween, Friday the 13th is a slasher film about teenagers and a man in a hockey mask at a summer camp. Oh, and the serial killer only comes out on Friday the 13th. Why? I don't know, its just one of those days. Friday the 13th is forever a day that people will be afraid of.

My thoughts on the ITEDs... or whatever they are.

As everyone that reads this knows, (because I doubt anyone outside of Kennedy or even outside of AP Lang at this school reads my blog) us Kennedy students had to take our standardized tests this week. (Actually, I seriously doubt anyone reads this except for you, Dr. Ayers. I'll pretend I'm not aware of this though for my blog posts though.) The tests basically are to assure that our school is keeping up with national and state education standards. Kennedy already has a reputation for being fine school, so there isn't really a lot of stress associated with the tests.

Weird coincidence: last night I was watching the episode of King of the Hill on Adult Swim last about standardized testing. Basically the administration of the school that one of the main characters (Bobby Hill) goes to is scared about the upcoming standardized test because the students are low-performing and they don't want to lose their funding. To alter the results of the test, the majority of low performing students are deemed "special education" students and are put in a room to sit and wait while the rest of the school prepares for the test. I thought it was a really funny episode and it was kind of weird that it was playing during the week of ITEDs (or whatever they are)


The reading comprehension section was much more interesting than previously. This is usually my favorite section because I've always been good at reading and have always scored around 99% for this particular section. The reading sections are usually about interesting, random subjects. The questions are easy, you just have to read the section carefully at times. My favorite question from the reading comprehension section was
"Look at this picture of a cheetah, what is it doing?
A) about to attack
B) eating
C) yawning and stretching
D) cannot be determined

The picture was obviously of a cheetah that was yawning and stretching, attached to a reading section all about yawning and the human brain. Another question on the test was asking for how we would find more books on a certain author. The obvious answer choice was: do an internet search on the author. These kind of questions really make me think that the people who write the test questions are out of touch to how much teenagers my age know. My entire generation grew up using computers, we have no problem finding what we need on the internet. Questions about finding info are almost irrelevant in a world where the answer to any question is "just google it".

My trip to Nashville.

Wednesday
Happiness members got together Wednesday morning over break and had a group breakfast at Perkins. I realized that breakfast food is the greatest food of all time. Because I never grew out of being a picky eater, most of the time I struggle to find one thing that I want to eat at restaurants. Anything with vegetables is off the table, I only eat beef, chicken and turkey, and ketchup and cheese sauces are the only sauces allowed. At Perkins, most of the food meets my requirements for eating, so I had a lovely time. I even cleaned my plate.
After our lovely breakfast, we all had a morning practice in the black box at Kennedy. The practice was what we refer to as a "run-through" which is just doing the show start-to-finish minus the costumes, which are really a hassle to put on. Our director, Mr. Ziegler, told us to take the practice and the upcoming competition seriously, but we really found that hard to do. Nationals is really a huge deal, and its always stiff competition. None of us thought we could win, so we really were shooting for third or fourth place. Third or fourth place would be good enough for us and I'm sure it would impress people at home. Third in the nation isn't bad at all, it's definitely better than any other Kennedy activity has done.

Thursday
2 a.m: arrive at Kennedy. I figured my best strategy for this was to just not go to bed Wednesday night. This proved really difficult. I think my natural sleep cycle favors me waking up earlier than most people and going to bed early. I wake up every morning for school at 5:29 am and try to go to bed around 10. So from 10-2, I struggled to keep my eyes open and function. Sleeping on the bus is crucial because it passes the time. Being awake for an entire 12 hour bus ride would drive you insane. I survived until the departure time and immediately passed out on the floor of the bus. Fun fact: sleeping on the floor of the bus is weirdly comfortable. I think knowing that its the best position you can be in makes it really relaxing. I woke up around 7 am very confused. I forgot that I was on a bus somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Around 7:30 all 70 something travelers attacked a McDonald's somewhere in Illinois. I was lucky enough to be one of the first people in line so I got my food quickly. McDonald's hashbrowns when you're starving = delicious. We got back on the bus and after some abuse of nyquil, I fell asleep until about 12. Then, we watched the wonderful film that is Baby Momma. Seriously, you watch the most random movies on show choir buses. It helped pass the time. Once we entered the Nashville area, we we are really excited and the torture that is a 12 hour bus ride was almost nothing. The first view of the hotel was astonishing. The Gaylord Opryland hotel is bigger than you can even imagine. I've been to Las Vegas numerous times and never seen anything so big, in fact I could'nt even get all of it in view for a picture.
We got our rooms, fixed our appearances and headed over to the Grand Ole Opry to watch some of the womens division show choir. I hate watching womens groups. Its hard to enjoy show choir when you're at a high level of performance. When I was younger and in bad groups, everything looked amazing to me. Now, you can't really appreciate other groups when you know you're better than they are. It sounds awful and cocky, but that's really just how it is. We were greeted at the Grand Ole Opry with some people who worked at Red Bull and were giving out free cans. It was great. After watching the groups, we went back to explore the huge hotel. For the most part, we hung out in the atrium and just enjoyed how pretty it was.

Friday
Wake-up time was 6:30. We all were fed a quick breakfast of granola bars and juice and then had to go to a practice outside the hotel on a large empty balcony by the Opryland convention center. We worked on making there were no crucial problems with our show for about 30 minutes and then were told to go get our costumes on and hair and makeup done. We got on the buses for a quick ride to the Grand Ole Opry, which was pretty close by. We watched a lot of really good groups. Almost all of them had huge sets with lights, fog, and many costume changes. It's really intimidating to watch lots of good groups with all of these additions knowing your group doesn't have any of that. One group, the Fairfield Choraliers, was especially scary to watch. They were the first group that could really sing. We left the auditorium after their performance to get ready for our own, scared. The performance went great. After the curtain dropped, we all screamed from excitement because we knew it was the best we had ever done. My favorite part of being on that stage is that in the front, there is a circle of wood from the original stage where performers like Elvis Presley and Hank Williams performed. At awards we were the last group announced to perform for the finals. We all got really nervous before the made the announcement and started to worry that we hadn't made it into the top 6. On the bus ride back, Mr. Ziegler told us that we were currently in second place, not far behind the first place group: Fairfield. We were fired up because we never thought we could even place that high. The rest of the day was spent shopping and exploring the hotel.


Saturday
The wake up call was 6:30. We were the last group scheduled to perform in the finals. We had breakfast and practiced again like we did the day before. Mr. Ziegler gave us some things that judges had specifically asked for and we tried to put them into our show. We were nervous and not very confident we could actually beat the first place group. Most of us had came to terms with second place and were excited by the idea. We went back to our rooms, got costumes, hair, and makeup ready. We got on the bus there in silence and nervously waited to perform once we got to the Grand Ole Opry. Groups are given about 20 minutes of time to warm up their voices and go over parts of their show before they perform. We had a guest with us; the man who created happiness back in 1968. He told us about how proud he was of what Happiness had become and explained to us where the yellow jackets came from: he went out to get a travel jacket for the group and was only able to get them in yellow to represent the school colors. When he showed them to the group, they were less than pleased, but wore them anyway. He made the members sign a contracts saying that they would only wear the jacket when at a Happiness event and to wear them with pride. We were all inspired and wanted to make him proud of us. The show went well, but we didn't all feel the same confidence we felt after yesterdays performance. I was so nervous for the results I could barely talk. Before the announcer said who the second place group was, we all held hands and braced for the announcement. When he said that second given to Fairfield, a feeling of relief and excitement overcame us that cant even be described. We were the national champions. The rest of the trip, we were too excited to worry about anything else. Being number one is a great, great feeling.


word count: 1328.

nashville pix 2

One of the views from inside the hotel.

nashville pix

Our Director, Mr. Ziegler, calling our choreographer Damon Brown to tell him the news that we won. He held the phone out to us, we screamed and he said "I think you know how it turned out."

dot dot dot

covered my word count yay