Coffee and a Compliment

Today is the first day of a series of meetings for Dave and me -- Ofest for me tonight, choir for me tomorrow night, alumni stuff for Dave on Thursday night -- so Dave drove himself to work this morning. Which is nice except that I have to do laundry today and my little car doesn't hold the laundry containers as well as Dave's does, and we are out of milk. That's important. Dave and I usually stop for coffee on the way to work. If I don't drive him, I have to make coffee at home. No milk -- no coffee. Ugh.

So I threw on some clothes and headed out the door to walk down to our local bodega -- The Happy Food Spot -- to get some milk. Very nice place run by a really nice Korean lady. She wasn't open yet. Ugh again.

I had two choices: (1) wait for her to open, or (2) walk down another block and get a latte at Starbucks. I had to stand there for a minute to make the decision. I headed down to Starbucks after rationalizing that I would drink less caffeine if I bought a latte rather than making my own bottomless pot at home.

Starbucks was nuts -- as usual. I'm rarely there on a weekday morning before 9:00am. Chaos. Lots of people trying to get a quick cup before work, lots more people with little ones. It was a veritable day care center this morning. Ironically, waiting for my first coffee of the day is tough when I haven't had any coffee yet. I was in a long line. It was great getting a baby-fix while I waited. There was a particularly cutey one in a wagon in front of me. She was maybe 9 months old and had eyes as big as her face and chocolate-colored hair that formed a perfect cap on her head and a teeny gold earring in each ear.

There were also lots of toddler-size kids around. As I surveyed the room, I realized there were lots of other kids. I started to feel trapped. I got caught between two women who had five kids between them and were discussing the features of a stroller as though it were some new sports car. I felt a little hand on my leg and realized that another small person wanted me to pick him up -- easily the youngest male to ever hit on me! (Okay, bad joke.)

I was waiting for a skim latte. That's all. No mocha, no ice, all caffeine, no whip, no caramel, no soy, no chai -- just espresso and steamed milk. It took a while. Kids were everywhere. My baby-fix had turned into a nightmare of too much of a good thing. I felt like I was being surrounded by a swarm of killer bees that might turn on me if I made any quick movements.

I stood there quietly watching coffees that looked more like desserts get called out in front of me. Finally, my grande skim latte. As I reached for it a young woman approached me. I was afraid for a moment that I had grabbed a coffee that wasn't mine in order to hasten my escape. She got my attention and said, "I really love your wedding rings -- they're beautiful. Would you mind if I got a closer look?"

I thanked her and gave her my hand for her inspection. She asked me a couple of questions, gushed about them again, and then wished me a good morning.

How nice was that?

On the walk home I passed through the weekly farmers market. I was looking at vegetables in the same spot where Dave and I stood just a few nights ago, arm in arm singing one of our favorite German songs (In heaven there is no beer / That's why we drink it here / 'Cause when we're gone from here / Our friends will be drinking all our beer / hey hey hey).

The market's goods revealed that fall is in fact on its way. One vendor had watermelon for sale next to crates of squash. Another vendor had huge pots of mums (three for $20) and a few pie pumpkins along with ears of corn. I love this time of year.