March Madness is just such a horrible time of year. Anytime I try to get anything done at my house my television somehow finds a way to turn itself on and creep over to a college basketball game. If it isn’t collegiate basketball, it’s a Spring Training game (preferably with the Red Sox, but beggars can’t be choosers!) Needless to say I spend a lot of time with the radio blaring to try and avoid the temptation.

That being said today my roommate’s BF managed to finagle the television to the Purdue v Michigan State game and I knew that if I stayed in my house any longer I was done for. Nevermind the 45 degree weather and pure essence of spring creeping into our townhouse thru the open windows. Nope, my mind was already zoning out on zone defense and the brackets. Funny thing is I don’t even like basketball very much.

With an important presentation to prepare for on Tuesday at work, I figured my best bet was to run away from the situation and hole up at some café with my laptop, notebooks and company intranet. After twenty minutes of searching for my power supply cord and having a small temper tantrum over its disappearance I hopped into my Jeep and started heading up the street.

Not having eaten lunch yet I contemplated salad and a drink at Panera, which would have been the closer and easier venture from my house. I have never attempted to log on at a Panera, though, and I was concerned that I’d get my food ordered, my table all arranged with the aforementioned presentation preparatory materials, and my computer all booted up just to find out that I wasn’t able to connect. I’d watch that evil little bouncing yellow ball flail aimlessly in the bottom right hand corner of the screen all the while cursing my ill-fated decision to go somewhere that obviously held no appeal for a young professional trying to escape on a Sunday afternoon.

No, I decided to blast right past the Panera café and head right for the Starbucks. A veritable icon of my generation, Starbucks could never let me down the way that Panera might. I mean, Starbucks is the quintessential coffee shop of the young professional. Movies replicate it, start-ups emulate it, and even though every week they seem to be closing a different location I know my store beside Old Navy would never abandon me. I’ve spent my fair share of lazy Sunday mornings and hectic Thursday evenings reading and working on my laptop at the conglomeration’s shop. Yep, I’m a follower.

I should have realized the dangers that lay ahead when I was informed at 1:15 PM that they were out of yogurt parfait. That’s ok, I didn’t really need to eat. I hear the whole concept is very overrated. I then sat down at my table and began the settling in process. Laptop out of the bag, cord plugged in, headphones in (Sarah Vaughn blasting,) notebook out, DVD courses on top, cell phone placed parallel to the edge of my computer (what can I say, I’m a little OCD) and then I flicked on my Wi-Fi finder.

When my laptop is unable to access a secured network it instead attempts to enable the Hotspot through my virtual client program. I hate it when it does that. Usually it only happens in hotels, which isn’t too bad because I don’t want to know what types of sites other lonely business people are accessing while traveling. The enabler generally encrypts my computer or makes a firewall or some other extremely technical and programmable thing that I appreciate to no end but really don’t understand how it works.

In my little corner of the world at Starbucks, however, there was no such thing happening. Instead, an AT&T wireless screen popped up asking for my name and password. Wouldn’t have phased me all that much, except my WAN card is through Verizon (when you live in Maine it’s the only network that can always “hear me now.”) So I went to my green-aproned barista and asked what the logon was. She replied “Oh, you have to sign up. I think it’s like $5 one time or you can subscribe monthly for about $20.”

Seriously? I just spent $3.27 on a Venti Iced Tazo Green Tea that you claim is shaken (an action which I cannot account for as I watched you make it) that I could have easily gotten for less than $.10 at my house WITH wireless internet and you are now going to inform me that I have to pay an ADDITIONAL charge? That is just NOT ok (as evidenced by my gratuitous use of exclamations and capped letters!)

I’ve always looked to Starbucks for a place to sneak away from to work. Lately I’ve gone back to my house, but the draw of distraction is far too great there. Instead, I was hoping to finally be one of those uber-hip young professionals typing feverishly on her laptop while meeting the eyes of a super cool guy reading Fever Pitch in the over-stuffed chair across the café. When I gave my presentation, I’d casually toss off that I actually completed the whole thing while relaxing around the corner from our offices, and in turn prompt the audience to check out their own local franchise and virally market the brilliance that is Starbucks. I’d be the Gen X/Y executive that is a mover and shaker and obviously be invited to the corporate headquarters to be part of their think tank.

Apparently as Starbucks is crashing and burning and continue working to find ways to cut corners and thus alienate more customers, I shall instead be forced to find another place to escape. I don’t want a coffee place that I run into, grab a horribly overpriced macchiato and leave without building a relationship. I am part of a generation that desperately yearns for a place that recognizes my needs and wants me to be their friend. A place where I can order my coffee, curl up in a chair with my laptop or a book and come back week after week. A place that is like my home away from…well…my home, even if might not be the catalyst that will lead to my utter business world domination.

That used to be Starbucks.

As for now, I’ll have to head into the office to finalize my presentation as I cannot endure more trial and error at new coffee houses. Perhaps next weekend while I’m curled up with Austenland on Sunday morning. For now, I’ll be resigned to the corporate workwheel that I am always thrilled to avoid.

How about you…what business has let you down recently in this penny-pinching economy?