On Having a Usual

Working the Mosaic coffee bar, I pride myself in knowing regulars by their drink choice. I may have virtually no idea what their names are, but I do know their drink. (Mr. Toffee-Nut Latte, I'm talking to you) I love winning the race to get their usual drink started before they even ask for it.

And people - whether they admit it - want to be known, to have their needs anticipated. We cloak it, calling it "great customer service", but I think it goes far deeper to a soul-level need. Why else would I be exhausted after a week at a conference, talking endlessly with people I barely know (and who don't know me)? I just wanted someone to talk to, to whom I didn't have to explain everything first.

As I was saying.

On the other hand, I virtually never order the same drink twice. I have plenty of Favorites, but not a Usual. I'm always trying new flavor combinations. Which you could probably write off as the part of my personality/career that favors experimentation and sensory evaluation. But I'm often looking for a new favorite. Same with restaurants - there's only one restaurant where I always order the exact same thing every time.(1) Otherwise, I jump around menus like the cast of Fame. And it's not just with food and drink - I'm on the search for my next favorite for a lot of things. That could sound like I'm perpetually dissatisfied, but I don't think that's true. Maybe it's an acknowledgment of the variety of experiences waiting to be discovered. Life's pretty short, after all. I don't purport that all of my favorite things are the absolute best (okay, okay, I said all - anyone who knows me longer than twenty seconds knows how I evangelize my favorites...), and I'm generally willing to accept that there is more that is Good out there.

Likewise, a friend once told me that she always wears the same perfume so that whenever someone smells her signature scent, they will be reminded of her. The romantic in me really loves that idea, but I find I can't commit to just one fragrance for that long. I usually work through a bottle of perfume in a year, maybe two.(2) Then I'm happy to switch to something new. As a result, my fragrances are highly associative with specific time periods - ck one invariably evokes memories of sophomore year of college, for example. I don't necessarily get tired of a fragrance by the time I get to the end of the bottle, but I sure do look forward to the adventure of finding the next. The process of discovery, of the hunt, of the selection.(3)

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1 Beef Tostadas, everything but sour cream; Mr. Pibb with extra ice.

2 Currently it's Ferragamo Incanto Shine. Previously, it was Aquolina Pink Sugar. And prior to that, it was Trish McEvoy #9 (Blackberry and Vanilla Musk)

3 This may also explain my patience for thrift-store shopping.