Second Week...

The flight back from Detroit was pretty good on Sunday. I had no idea how tired I was after a Friday red-eye and not sleeping much during my first week, so I slept pretty much the whole way home. I woke up in time to take a couple cool shots of the sun setting behind the San Juan Islands and Seattle. For those who haven' t been up to Seattle -- both of these photos look West/Northwest. In the picture on top, you can make out the city skyline on the middle peninsula. The bridge on the left (South) side of the photo is Interstate 90, and the one on the right (North) side is Rt. 520. 520 is the main artery from Seattle to Redmond (where Microsoft is based), and the 90 is what I take each day from Bellevue (too far East to see in the photo, but barely). The island you can see on the close side of the bridges is Mercer Island, where lots of the Hebrews live.

At Starbucks, the Board was meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, so the 7th floor was abuzz with activity most of those days. I got to try Fall's new frappucino (those of you in Detroit know what this will be because of the market testing going on there...but I have to remain silent) and a bevy of cool stuff left over from the meetings. I was hoping to run into Bill Bradley (one of the directors) in the bathroom to ask him about either his Olympic medals, his NBA titles, his work with McKinsey, or his time as a Senator, but it turned out that he and I never had to pee at the same time.

Speaking of cool directors, there is a 36-year old woman named Melody Hobson on the Board. She is an asset manager in Chicago for a value shop who seems to have a really good business ethic. She and Howard Schultz share a directorship on the board of another company, so that may be how they met, but I remember being really impressed the first time I heard someone so young was on such a distinctive Board. The Wall Street Journal named Melody one of its "Women to Watch" back in 2004, and it looks like she's living up to that.

I ran into Jim, the CEO, again this week. He came into the kitchen for a drink during the meeting while I was there making my daily short nonfat, no-whip black & white mocha. He abruptly asked me what I'd learned since I saw him last, and I whittled off something about how my key cross-functional contacts would be in market research and finance. He seemed satisfied, because he nodded and walked off. From all I've heard about him, I wouldn't be surprised if he emailed my finance and market research contacts to make sure I do good work with them. People think the guy is cloned around the building, because he always seems to be popping up in meetings and responding to random personal emails within a few minutes.

I got some more traction on my projects, so I'm feeling pretty good about that. Soon I will be leading my first coffee tasting. The other Category interns started this week, and I moved into an office that I am sharing with all 4 of them. We decorated it with Banana promotion stuff and older things that the Creative group could give us, so it's not a sterile white room like it was when we first moved in. I also have a phone, a computer, a docking station, an internet connection, and an ID badge. Sounds trivial, but the first week was an admin nightmare. Oh, and I got paid, too. Stoked.

The demand for my favorite reduced fat banana chocolate chip coffee cake led to shortages in supply from the baker in San Antonio who makes them for Starbucks, so some regions have been out of the dessert lately...including Seattle...it has been hard to go without it! The 30% partner discount sure makes Starbucks a lot more affordable. Sunday, I got my first "markout" - free weekly 1 pound bag of coffee. I got French Roast from the store over on Lake Washington.

Summer 2 coffee comes out soon...keep an eye out...it is going to be damn good.

I am more and more impressed with the people here as I get to know more of them. I'm now working in depth with finance and the strategy group, and I'll be working a lot with marketing research soon to do some customer outreach. I get to be on the phone with store partners many times during the week, which teaches me so much about the business of retail. I can now also commit to a predictable schedule since the Stanley Cup Playoffs are over and I don't need to be in front of a TV at 5:00 Pacific time.

Until next week...