Join Me

Starbucks was on Starbucks Today

And, yes, Matt, that is the best.

The Breakfast of a Champion for Christ (A little inside joke)

Okay.

    So I am brilliant today. I woke up at a little after 7, running not too late but too late to get breakfast AND Starbucks. Bummer. But the problem is that I can't have coffee and not have breakfast, because then I get a little woozy. (hehe-- the word woozy is really full when you emphasize it) And, clearly, I can't not have coffee. So what did I do?

    Unwilling-- precisely because I'm the only one of us four who seems to even regard this as an option-- to grab one of the old July bagels that no one touches (but still looks alright), I decided on cereal. But I had to go, or I wouldn't get coffee.

    I remembered my ingenius plan yesterday of taking Rachel's sweet tea with me in a (wonder of wonders!) waterbottle!

    I cleaned out that waterbottle and poured the milk in about halfway. I spilled a little, but thankfully Buck was eager to clean that up. I also grabbed a bowl, poured some cereal and seran-wrapped it as tight as possible. I stuck both in my purse and off I went to get my coffee.

The Small Joys Are Worth Everything

    Yesterday I contemplated how I don't just eat for sustenance, but how much I really depend on what my tastes are. As I was deciding what to buy for dinner that was under a dollar (having more people living under your roof raises bills remarkably). I also knew whatever I chose to eat had so be something that would keep me from getting that hungry headache I used to get in high school and have been getting a lot more lately. I decided it had to be a bagel. (500 calories to last me through the next 3 work hours). This bagel also had to be a quick bagel to get me back to work on time.

Panera, since it is closest to school, won.

I walked in to look at the menu and realized they wanted to charge me more than two dollars for a bagel with cream cheese! Two whole dollars.

Two dollars!

So I had to settle for the 85 cent plain bagel with no spread. As I left Panera in a hurry (I had 12 minutes to make it to work) I kept thinking about ways I could get cream cheese. I needed cream cheese!

What was I going to do with a sliced bagel halfway stale from being set out all day? I needed flavor with it! So, even though I didn't have the money, I thought seriously about going back in to Panera to beg for the cream cheese, or steal it from one of our on-campus cafes.

Bummer! I remembered that on-campus cafes close at 4:30, and it was 4:49. I had 11 minutes to make it to work.

I called Aimee. She answers, "Ugh."

"You have cream cheese?"

"I need coffee."

"Me too! But I need cream cheese more. You have some?" I had ten minutes to get to work.

She knew where I was because she could hear the train and laughed when I cussed it out. "Just stop by Starbucks and get me coffee while you wait for the train to pass." (Here, there are train tracks across the back entrance to campus, and to go around when there's a train takes exactly seven minutes. I would have had just enough time.)

"Okay, Aimee....I guess I could get your coffee and then ask them for cream cheese."

"Naw, they'll make you pay for it, too. You can have mine for free if you get me Starbucks. I'm putting money on the Starbucks card now." (This is the smartest way to buy coffee for co-workers!)

I thought about it, weighed my options. They can fire us if we're late.....but I wanted free cream cheese much more. I turned my car around and headed back toward that little green sign.

Clearly, I would do anything to enhance the pleasure of eating. When I decided to risk my job, I actually realized how desperate I am to enjoy the act of eating, rather than just perform it.

I called Noelle. "Hey, do you have any cream cheese at your desk?"

"No, but Aimee does."