Showing posts with label coffee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coffee. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Of Baristas and Coffee Shops

As we head to the counter I see her start to smile. She gives a little wave and says "Hey Lion. I love your dinosaur shirt."

He laughs. He smiles and bats his eyelashes at her in only the way a two year old can.

She takes my order and says "I could just eat him up, he's so cute."

I smile in return and hug him a little tighter. "Yep. He's the best."

I head to the end of the counter to await my coffee. He doesn't even have to call out my order, he knows it by heart. "Here you go, Renee. Do you need help with the lid?"

"No I've got it. You get used to doing things one handed after a while."

"Enjoy."

After I get my coffee, we get Lion his water. He loves that he can press the lever on the water jug. I have to hold back his enthusiasm just a bit so the water doesn't over flow on to the floor.

Drinks in hand we head to the table. I break up pieces of the pumpkin or zucchini bread for him. He grabs a piece and shove it into his mouth "Nak. Yay nak."

"Yes baby. It is a yummy snack."

I take a drink of my coffee and sigh contentedly. The chaos of the morning slips away with each sip. It doesn't last long because the Lion cub does not have the patience to savor an entire cup.

Lion throws away our trash. We bundle up and get ready to face the grocery store. Before we leave we say good bye to our friends and know that we get to do this again tomorrow.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The Drive-Thru

The drive-thru is the ulitmate in convenience. You can get what you want without ever having to leave your car. No fuss, no muss.

Just place your order into the speaker, drive forward, hand your money to the person at the window and drive off with your food. In my estimation, this is the only way to do fast food. I don't eat it very often but when I break down and make a run for the border, I don't feel as bad about it if I go to the drive thru. I'm protected in the car, no one can see me ordering my tacos. Yes I am aware that someone could see my car but I pretend they can't.

Now the drive-thru wedding, I don't really understand. Are you in that much of a hurry to get married, that you can't get out of the car? Are you like Bonnie and Clyde, on the run from the law and need to be prepared for a get away at a moments notice? Or is it the kitsch value? I just don't know.

When I heard that Starbucks had installed drive-thru windows on some of their locations I didn't really understand that either. I mean I get it in theory. If you are a commuter and are in a hurry you can pull into the drive thru and get your venti, non-fat latte faster than if you went into the store.

But I never really needed coffee that badly that I couldn't get out of the car for it. My commute was only 15 minutes and there was a coffee shop in my building, so I could wait for my morning cup. Or if I really had to have it before I left, I'd make a pot when I first got up. It just seems easier.

Plus to me the best part of coffee is savoring it. I like the ambiance of the coffee house. I like to see the people. I like to smell the fresh coffee. Coffee just tastes better that way.

So I've never felt the need to visit a drive-thru for my coffee fix. Until yesterday. Yesterday there was no nap and there was a cranky toddler to deal with. I figured we'd head to the store to pick up a few things. As most parents know, the car has magical sleep inducing properties so I was also hoping for a nap.

Of course she fell asleep within 10 minutes of being in the car. We didn't make it to the store but that's okay because Bubs could pick up the stuff on the way home. But now what? If we go home, she is likely to wake up on the transfer and that would be bad. It was snowing so I didn't want to aimlessly drive around. I wanted to go somewhere, but where?

Then it hit me, the Starbucks drive thru. Genius. I could get my salted caramel hot chocolate and kill some time. (If you haven't had a salted caramel hot chocolate you must run to your local Starbucks and get one. Its that good. No its better than good, its amazing. But I digress.) This was the perfect use of the coffee drive-thru and I was glad there was one when I needed it.