The boys are up and in our bed, watching Dude Perfect videos or playing Madden Mobile on JP's iPad while Jude reads on her iPad beside them. I'm not much for laying in bed after I wake up, so as is my custom, I'm sitting at Bongo Java with a cup of coffee.
It's Christmas Eve morning and I'm one of two customers. The other - a young lady in her mid-twenties - is waiting at the door for someone to arrive, checking her phone intermittently. Yep, right on time, her friend walked in the door. They hug, laugh and walk to the register to order breakfast and a coffee.
Megan - one of my all-time favorite baristas and a Saturday morning stalwart at Bongo - just greeted them with a friendly "He!" and a smile, as always, and is taking their order. Megan loves the boys and they love her, so much so that she babysat for them once upon a time. Megan graduated from Belmont U. a week ago with a nursing degree, having put herself through school. I'm proud of her, very proud of her. She starts work as a nurse in late January, so she only has a couple Saturday morning shifts left. The boys and I are going to miss her.
One of the special things for me about being a regular at Bongo Java is watching the employees come and go. There is a cycle of life aspect to it all, as I watch them start working here, find their way, get comfortable then sometime a little bored and finally, move on to something else.
Take Megan, for example. I can vividly recall the first time on a busy Sunday morning, when EJ put Megan on the line as a barista. She was timid and terrified. And slow, man was she slow. I also saw EJ watching her out of the corner of his eye, deliberately not helping her but making sure she had the capability of getting herself out of the weeds. She did, of course, and the rest is Bonjo Java history.
So many faces, almost all smiling in my memory, working the counter and making coffee for me at Bongo Java Belmont over the last 14 + years. The faces do blur a bit for me and the names run together, although a few stand out for all time. Chad, Jackson, Chuck, Mitch, Meghan, A.J., Adam, George, Megan and the Godfather of the baristas, EJ.
There is Christmas music playing and I can hear Megan the others talking and laughing behind the counter and in the kitchen. The framed photo I took of JP and Joe last year at Frothy Monkey when Bongo Java Belmont was closed for renovations sits on the coffee machine behind the counter ("We Miss EJ" @bongojava, it says). Our family's 2016 christmas card is taped to the other side of the coffee machine, near the entry to the kitchen.
I'd say we're regulars. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
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