Maya The Barista

07/07/2019 by Pat Shiplett 1 Comment

Maya is the face of a generation.

Students I’ve studied with from Europe, Asia and South America — along with community-college classmates — are preparing for a future no one can exactly envision.

It’s said that the Mayas among us will pursue several careers, often as contractors without benefits, and may need to create their own jobs. They’ll start as unpaid interns while carrying serious debt.

Many of them believe that following a personal passion will serve them better than signing up for a traditional professional path — by dint of curiosity and dedication, they’ll find their way. They don’t worry about a steady income at the tender age their parents did.

Maya will enter the last year of an independent-study program. Her focus on Community Services includes English, Sociology, American Studies. She sees it as an insurance policy that her scholarships helped make happen.

Maya spends summers as a barista at our corner coffee shop. The encounter has made her more optimistic about life (a lift every undergrad could use).

She’s drawn to the precision, science and artistry of the craft; and the teamwork it requires. Hardest to master is the simple, elegant cortado. The espresso is to be just so. The milk needs to be exactly warm enough (never steaming) to lay down the right trace of foam.

Although the coffee shop adheres to Fair Trade Organic and Direct Trade practices, it’s not an underground or bohemian kind of joint. Maya brags on its homey quality.

She plans to continue as a barista after she graduates. It will give her breathing space and it may leave breadcrumbs she can follow along the way.

Does she worry about her future? “Not at all,” she’ll tell you, “but I do worry about ‘our’ future.”

Maya Crowe-Barnes is the face of a generation.

Meet David Compton

04/23/2019 by Pat Shiplett 2 Comments

An achievement is measured by the distance between a challenge and the resources available to overcome it. David Compton was an architectural draftsman, capable, well-employed. It was linear, straight-forward work perfect for a person who needs to shut out the chaos around him and focus on the task at hand. He delivered a product he was proud of.

But his industry went digital, and with every architectural firm he called, it became clear his livelihood had vanished. Loss of steady work combined with the ins-and-outs of existence to take its toll.

People and organizations came to David’s aid. He has lived in public housing and at a YMCA. He currently receives Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. The C4 Centers facilitate his medications, offer group therapy sessions and have helped him find employment. He takes none of this for granted.

David was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness but was recently confirmed as an Episcopalian. His faith provides a foundation for hope. The more he has been tested the more he believes that the unwritten Eleventh Commandment is to never give up.

David now lives independently in a place of his own. He has a checking account, a credit card and a car he drives to work. He has five newspapers delivered each day. “They help get me out of myself.” he explains.

A charming man, a man perfectly suited to provide customer service at a nearby grocery store, David’s job definition requires attention to detail, precise follow through and doing things on a timely basis. He goes out of his way to connect with his customers (he recognized me from the coffee shop and we struck up a friendship).

David, like so many others who achieve success in their particular fields, is modest about his latest accomplishments.

Laura And Her Lists

04/04/2019 by Pat Shiplett 1 Comment

Laura becomes physically uneasy if something causes her to miss even a single day. It has been an important part of her daily life, weekends and vacations included, for as long as she can remember.

Nothing is quite right until she stops and sets aside a moment to draw up her to-do list.

There are routine chores, ongoing projects broken down into manageable steps, as well as activities that promise pleasure and enrichment.

Some items get carried over from one day’s list to the next. When an entry is finally retired Laura goes back and crosses it off from that day’s list and all the earlier ones as well. Crossing off a unpleasant task is especially gratifying because now it is behind you and you’ve proven, once again, exactly what you’re made of.

Laura Dell keeps her lists organized just so. She staples her yellow legal-pad pages together at the end of the month and stores them chronologically in marked boxes.

Making a list sparks ideas and connections. Chance entries take on a life of their own. Penicillin must have on Fleming’s to-do list.

Laura’s mother impressed on her that time is not to be wasted, it’s not replaceable, and that you’ll need it if you mean to accomplish anything in life.

If her habit seems like a compulsion, it’s one that has served her well. She is a organization-development consultant whose billable hours are the basis of her income. As a divorced working woman who raised three children, survival has always depended of juggling demands.

Laura suspects that her obsession may have at times affected her physical well-being. To this day she delights in telling that when her children were young, they’d find her list and scribble ‘go to the bathroom’ as something she should consider doing from time to time.

Peter and Enzo

03/18/2019 by Pat Shiplett 4 Comments

There are dogs bred to herd sheep and steers. Enzo isn’t one of them.

And there are dogs that assist the sight-impaired. That’s not Enzo either.

Certain breeds flush game from tall grass but Enzo does not hunt, pull sleds, sniff out contraband or repel intruders.

The two and one-half year-old spent 10 days waiting to be adopted. He was withdrawn, mistrustful and desperately in need of a haircut.

Joanna and Peter drove two hundred miles during one of the meanest days in many years (-20°) bent on adopting a dog that same day. Too soon for a new mutt? Joanna was confident that her Jude would have understood.

The shelter’s app listed three dogs that might work given their apartment and their allergies. The least promising, the only one left when the couple arrived, had been written up for urinating and nipping. Patience was advised.

Enzo inspected every inch of the living room at the Mulder-Baker household before sequestering himself there. Its couch revealed truths about the late Jude that only another dog could understand. It was reassuring.

Enzo feared the hallway leading to the rest of the place. Something in its closet made noise and caused heat to fall from the ceiling. But the kitchen and its activities called and eventually Enzo allowed himself the run of the place. Once on the bed he inched his way toward nighttime contact.

Because he’s skin and bones, Peter and Joanna feed him canned food. They agreed they wouldn’t repeat the table scraps mistake they’d made with Jude. Maybe the squeaker toys Peter brought home would compensate.

Ezno is taken out three times a day. Joanna does the a.m. and Peter the p.m. Midday is a toss-up.

It’s not unusual to see the writer of long-form articles in the New York Times, The New Yorker and The Guardian — one well along on an anticipated novel — abandon his work in a window at our coffee shop to show his new dog the neighborhood.

We tend to think of shelters as places we humans go to rescue animals. And that’s true as far as it goes but more often than not, the rescues that take place go in both directions.

Lisa Jean Baker

01/24/2019 by Pat Shiplett 5 Comments

You will be spending the night with Liza Jean.

You’ve already had quite a day.

Some sort of medical thing has been addressed by a surgical team. Something was implanted or shifted or removed. Things monitored and modulated.

Thanks to the anesthesiologist whose team kept asking your date of birth, you’ll awake in a room equipped to receive you.

Liza Jean Baker is a bedside nurse in a post-op surgical unit. She works the Dracula shift, 7 pm to 7 am, Friday and Saturday nights. She visited us at our coffee shop recently.

Her job is one of the most demanding in nursing. She wrestles with swelling, bloating, stomach gas, nausea and people experiencing acute pain for the first time. She learned about post-surgery pain firsthand when her wisdom teeth were removed.

Liza Jean Baker hadn’t planned to spend weekend nights on a post-op floor. But those particular hours pay a premium which helps with student loans. She maintained 3.98 GPA while earning her BSN and submitted 102 applications before going to work.

Sleeping gets turned upside down, of course. Liza Jean says she eats her way through her night shift and follows with a good breakfast. Then she sleeps. Socializing can be a bit complicated.

Her father, an orthopedic surgeon, discouraged the pursuit of medicine, demands outweighing rewards and all that.

But her mother, a career pediatric nurse, whispered into her other ear. It wasn’t until her mother stopped encouraging her that Liza Jean took the step. Now the nursing profession is a bond between them.

Medical technology will give Liza Jean real-time readouts as you are stabilizing throughout the night. Just as important, she’ll lean in to fuss over you and to ask if you need help with pain, and if you might like to sit up for a while.