Medium Coffee

It happened.  This morning it happened. 

The morning began in the usual way.  I rise shortly after sunlight brightens Eva’s room enough that she voices her mournful morning sigh and lets us know she wants out where the people are.   My first couple of hours are spent getting ready for work, reading the paper and playing ball or tug with Eva.  This was to be a typical day.

“As hot as the hubs of you know where” – that’s what my Dad would have said after walking out to pick up the morning paper from the driveway.  Yesterday’s heat took up residence in the concrete drive and walks.  The soles of slippers were made for cool tile floors or carpeted dens – not for hot concrete on a July morning.  New heat was riding in on a stifling south breeze and built quickly as the sun began its trek across the cloudless sky.  Such weather exacerbated my morning grumbling as the mercury pushed into the upper reaches of the antique thermometer hanging by the garage.

Yes, I was grumbling and had a generally rotten attitude as I got in the Mini Cooper to head to work.  Safely in the car with the a/c blowing full, I decided to make a stop at Starbucks for a medium coffee with a little skim milk.  This is the place where I love the product but am always embarrassed because I’ve never mastered the language necessary to place an order.  I just want coffee, java.  When I say medium, the clerk says Grande.   When I say skim milk, she says non-fat.  Usually, without having to resort to sign language, we reach an understanding.  Then she asks if I want to talk to their finance manager to complete the loan for my purchase – not really but maybe she should.

Today, she said that my Grande, non-fat, semi-dark Venetian blend (i.e. coffee) would be $2.27.  I said okay.  She said pull around to the window.  There were three cars ahead of me which gave me ample time to get the money out of my pocket.  Most of the people in line were clearly more literate in Starbucksese because they ordered faster, paid with a plastic card and received their order like they were all actors in a well-choreographed opera.  

Finally, I was next but the guy in the pick-up truck ahead of me broke the rhythm.  It was like he and the clerk were long lost friends or there was some major issue they had to resolve before moving on.   His card was passed through and returned and his coffee delivered.  Then more conversation and the card was passed in again.  My grumble quotient was rising and muttering under my breath commenced as I impatiently watched this ritual play its way out.  Why don’t people pay with cash – good old greenbacks so we can get on with this process? I had to get to work!  Finally, finally, the card was returned and he pulled out and away.

My turn.  I had my money – three one dollar bills – at the ready so I wouldn’t hold up the people behind me!  I had my window down and extended my hand.  The clerk returned my frustrated stare with a sunny smile and happy banter.  He was already handing my medium coffee through the drive up window.  As I thrust the cash out my window, he held up his palm, smiled and said that my cash wouldn’t be necessary because the gentleman in the pick-up truck had paid for my order!

Have you ever been completely alone and totally embarrassed?  I looked all around to see if anyone would notice the red rising in my neck and cheeks, to sense if anyone could have overheard my muttering.  I hung my head and quietly hoped that reading body language through a drive up window was not one of this happy clerk’s skills.  I may have even whispered a little prayer that in this moment everyone, including God, had been distracted to someone or something else. 

It happened – to me – today.  It made me smile amid feeling sheepish.  For some reason the heat became bearable.  For hours, the petty annoyances that punctuate every day were dismissed with a smile.  Throughout the day, I noticed simple kindnesses were in very great supply and shared freely.  While I resolve to pay his kindness forward, his gift wasn’t coffee.  

A good day will be the one when I do something that helps someone replace their grumbling with a smile to start their day.

--td