In my January post, I touched on the fun
that my friend and coworker Lisa and I have as Trixie and
Bubbles. It started off as something fun and silly, and has now
grown into something so much more fun and rewarding, and is providing lessons
along the way.
Let’s just say that we work in a stressful
office environment, and we have daily challenges. We escape gray cubicle world
at some point during the day (the time of day depends on the level of
ridiculousness going on) and head over to the Starbucks across the parking lot for
some iced tea and a short break to reset.
On a day where we had really had enough of the
office shenanigans, the barista asked us what name we wanted on our cups, Lisa
pipes up with “Bubbles” and when the barista laughed and then looked at me, I
popped off with “Trixie.” (Of course, if you follow me on Facebook, you
know how challenging spelling the name Lynette can be. I used to get the
question “one N or two in Lynette?” Now I don’t get a question, I get:
Lanette, Lanet, Linett, Lanite, Lynate, Rene, and my all-time favorite, Nene.
But I digress…)
When they called out the drinks by name, a few
people in the store looked over, we smiled and laughed and they smiled
back. As we left, Lisa called out for everyone to “Have a Bubblicious day!”
and we saw more smiles.
And the legend begins….each time we went in and
gave our names as Trixie and Bubbles, we got a smile from the staff behind the
counter, we would joke and lighten up the mood, and ultimately get them
laughing, no matter what was going on in the store.
We’d come in with the goal of having fun and
cheering up the staff, and, although not planned or intended, it started to
spread to the people in line and customers sitting at the tables.
One day there was a woman behind us in line who
clearly was not having a good day and was really annoyed at the time it was
taking. We started in with the Trixie and Bubbles attitude, joked with
the staff, got our drinks, sat down at a table and started laughing about
something. A few minutes later, the same woman came to our table and
thanked us for what we had done. We were speechless, because we never directly
talked to her, and at first didn’t know what she was talking about. She left
smiling and clearly in a different mood than when she came in.
Another day Lisa came across some really fun
thank you cards, so we signed one with something silly from Trixie and Bubbles
and gave it to the staff. They apparently put in on the board in the
breakroom, and I can’t tell you how many thank you’s we’ve received from one
simple card.
The other fun thing that happened is that the
staff started to look for us to come in. Some started telling us they were
disappointed we hadn’t come in during their shift. Really?? The
other interesting development is that they have started coming up to chat with us when on
a break, and have even shared personal things with us.
Our decision to enjoy ourselves at Starbucks was
challenged during one visit. In the
office there was almost a frantic energy, and fires were burning on everyone’s
desk. We escaped to go take our
restoring break, walked into the store and were met with a long line, the same
frantic energy, music that was irritating, and grumbling people all around us. It was actually worse than the energy in the office! We looked at each other and said “NO – this
has to change, we came here to get away from this.” We focused on getting into our Trixie and
Bubbles personas, and by the time we ordered our drinks we noticed the music
had changed. We joked with the staff. By the time we got our drinks, several of
the grumbling people had left, and we sat at a table and started to laugh. The whole mood had changed, and we were able
to enjoy our iced teas.
Gray cubicle world is now being affected as
well. When things are going haywire and the stress level is rising, we
decide not to participate. Trixie and Bubbles start joking around and lightening
things up. Once our secret identities were revealed, we even had our coworkers asking what names they can use – so we
also now have Sparkle, Diamond and Peaches. (yes, all of us have
excellent stripper names….)
We now tap into our Trixie and Bubbles
personalities wherever we go, and I gotta tell you, we are having great fun
with it. We're working with some ideas for some new adventures as well.
All of this because one day we had had enough
and just wanted to have some fun.
The lesson? You can raise your vibration, shift your energy, and
positively affect everyone around you, just by doing something as simple as
smiling and laughing, and using silly names at Starbucks. Try it and see what a difference it makes!
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| Sometimes we get a little treat along with our tea.... |
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| and yes, one time we actually did blow bubbles outside of Starbucks |
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| everyone needs a bunny bubble wand! |
