Thank you for your words of kindness and experience. I'm only a few weeks into working my way back to the real world rather than the one I've spent far too long in. You're right the path is dark and so much more unbearable without the depression hiding the truth anymore. I can still feel it but it was a dull ache compared to the razor sharp pain now.

I suggest opening up to those old friends, coworkers and ex-lovers about things you've done to them. I finally admitted something to an ex of mine that she'd known about for years. She'd made peace with it and my deciding to admit it finally took that weight off my shoulders. Forgiving yourself is a lot easier to do when other people forgive you for it. Telling the truth about things you've done is the best step one can take in forgiving yourself.

Right now all I can do is learn to trust in myself, love myself and to be the better person I know I am. That's all I have the ability to manage doing.

So it's currently been 6 days since I last had a cigarette. 15 days since I had a drop of alcohol. I'm achieving some of my goals. It feels good doing it. Though it's also quite exhausting to see how far I still have to go.

In many ways it feels good, I feel each day like parts of me are being used again for the first time in months. Like waking up with pins and needles in your arm or legs. The hardest part is knowing that in many ways I've lost everything that ever mattered to me. Having only memories remaining of the happiest times in my life is an exquisite agony but at the same time has been very important in helping me to continue the uphill path. The knowledge that I can be the person I was to experience so much joy and happiness keeps me going especially in the face of how I hurt those I care for.
In the last 3 weeks I've given up, smoking, alcohol, drugs, workaholism and red meat for the most part. Pretty amazing that I'm not really missing any of them. I also started sleeping almost regularly last night. Got all the way up to 6 hours without waking up.
Every day the path gets a little bit easier but I can still feel the immense weight trying to lure me back down. I will not..can not give in, not for myself nor for the chance to be a good father to my boys.
I love you Zandr! I love you Mikey! Daddy is getting better and better and misses you very much.

That seems far more indicative of a shoddy manager than the Starbucks has a whole. I still conduct many meetings every month at a variety of Starbucks (many clients have the familiarity and feeling of "neutral ground" when inside a Starbucks) and have only experienced that at one store in the greater Portland area. I do think that as a whole the customer experience throughout all types of business as foundered quite a bit.
I personally think though that the majority of issues are caused moreso by hiring a more apathetic generation (yeah that makes me feel as old as it likely sounds) who don't care about representing the company but only about getting a paycheck.
The more we become a consumer culture the less focus is put on the individual experience, instead fixating on the bottom line.
From what I've seen Starbucks is still trying to focus on the customer but some bad eggs are focused on quantity over quality.
I'd recommend calling customer care, giving them the store address and requesting the District Manager's contact info could go a long way towards helping things change.

I'm in total agreement about "hidden" charges not existing. I do though have to say that prepaid isn't a real option since AT&T dropped support for the iPhone. Add to that the inability to unlock the phone (even the 2g can't be unlocked even though AT&T has all but crippled 2g support).

I honestly never understood the whole treating CSR's with contempt. Anyone with half a brain knows that your hands are tied, typically by policies invented by an MBA with zero customer service experience. I've never been in the habit of yelling at front line CSRs. However when I've escalated to the upper echelons and am met with a blank wall of rudeness, hell yeah I'm going to change my tune.

I sincerely hope that the FCC actually does DO something about the way cellular carriers are providing shoddy service with no issue due to draconian contract terms.

Personally I've always questioned Lars Larson's ability to reason or have knowledge on any topic other than blatant selfpromotion.
Hell the man once said mon-ett when talking about the artist (sure I'll agree that knowing pronunciation of foreign names isn't always easy but he was a television reporter at the time, and they're SUPPOSED to know that stuff ahead of time).
Regardless until such time as the GOP or any of their ilk can recognize dialogue is more than fearmongering and abject stupidity they are what's wrong with this country and are far too often the leading cause of the rest of the world thinking we're ignorant fools unworthy of anything but watching tabloid tv.

I will be attempting the Pie champ record the weekend after next, I've been practicing my competetive eating skills. Hopefully I can rise to the challenge.
All in all though, Whiffies is my favorite destination friday nights after beer and blog.

I'm sorry, did someone take away your blanket or something? You have all of this rage or at least adolescent immaturity in your comment, either you're a troll just learning the ropes or you're completely incapable of making a point that is coherent or even decipherable. Just hold back and let the grownups talk for awhile.

No the whole point was to symbollically join with our fellow human beings to protest.

Why not bundle it? If you own a netbook odds are you own a fullsize system as well. So I'd suggest that Microsoft ought to give a free netbook edition to anyone who purchases home premium, business or ultimate. It'd help spur sales of the full versions, keep people closer to a homogeneous OS environment (best solution for security overall) & gives that "something for nothing" feel everyone likes.

For people who dislike that or don't want to upgrade their desktop OS the price should be the same as Home Basic is now for Vista. Granted this doesn't really account for manufacturer pricing but they already pay pennies on the dollar to MS for each license so I'm guessing the cost is already bundled in.