Umina, Robeks, Wisconsin Avenue

        When I asked if any of the smoothie-makers wanted to do an interview, Umina quickly volunteered. Seated at one of the small tables at Robeks, she drummed on the table and gestured with her hands. Her speech, punctuated with many "like"s and "yunno"s, was easy to listen to and hard to transcribe. Unlike most of the older people I had interviewed, our talk was a more equilateral conversation.

         

          “My name is Umina Bentrera and I am a shift leader at Robeks. I also work at Dominoes. I prefer working at Robeks. I’ve been working here almost two years.

      
         I ask her if there are regulars she knows. Yes. All the time. That’s why I love Robeks! When you see them, like, by the window, or the doors or whatever, you already know what they want and make it. But there’s always that one time where one customer might change it, which is really fun.

            I recently went to Los Angeles to take a class for special effects and I loved it so much I was like ‘I gotta get out of here!’ She laughs. I mean I love DC and I’m pretty sure if I move I’ll miss it, but I mean I’ve been here all my life and it gets kind of repetitive.

            I got out of school and I was like ‘what am I going to do?” I realized I really liked makeup. But in order to do special effects, I gotta get down the makeup part and I’m kind of like, I don’t know, in between right now. I took a class- there’s a makeup school here in DC. They’re really cool, but I feel like I would learn a lot more and be within my own comfort zone… Los Angeles is for people who wanna, like, do things like be behind the scenes or be, like, yunno actors or musicians or whatever. I feel like DC is definitely not the place to be unless I want to do like the governor’s makeup or whatever.

            I went to Wilson, I also went to Janney, I went to Deal, I went to Stoddert. I used to want to do something in the artistic field. I wanted to be a dancer, a belly dancer. I was supposed to do CityYear for a year and I didn’t end up moving to Philly. I ended up going to Mongomery College for a semester and I really didn’t like it because my parents were like ‘go to school! Go to school! Go to school!’ and I was like ‘eugh.’ But yeah.

            I basically stayed within the artistic field. I’m saving my money right now to go to Los Angeles. I’m here, working. On the weekends, I open the store here, take a two-hour break, and then go to Dominoes, work three or four hours, and go back to sleep. I’m supposed to be a makeup artist, and I do stuff on the side. But I really want to work for MAC. But MAC is very strict. I talked to one of the regional directors, and she was really straightforward, and I was just like ‘noooo!’

            I feel like it’s kind of weird working at a smoothie shop. Like I understand customer service all the way, which is what every retail job is. But I’m like… so done with Tenleytown. Tenleytown is cool but I’m just so done with it!

            I figure that with the makeup job I’ll be travelling a lot anywhere. Hopefully I’ll be so famous that celebrities will fly me across the country to do their makeup… that would be so cool. My goal is to win an Oscar.

            Just follow your instinct. Like, obviously listen to everybody else’s insight. Like if your parents want you to do something, listen to them, but do what you want to do. I wasted a semester at Montgomery College. Definitely.”

"Just follow your instinct."