Coffee in a car … literally.

Last week I stopped at Starbucks on the way home from Houston. I really enjoy good strong coffee and for reasons not relevant to this post, on that day I hadn’t had my normal caffeine consumption quota. So I was really looking forward to a strong cup of Christmas blend.

It kinda ticks me off that during the holidays, all Starbucks brews for “coffee of the day” is Christmas blend. At least during the other 10 ½ months there is a variety. Sumatra is my all time favorite “coffee of the day” and it is the least often served. I should quit whining and buy myself a pound of Sumatra and just brew it at home.

But on this day I braved the traffic in Pearland and made it to the Starbucks on 518. It was super crowded with holiday shoppers and after standing in line for a while listening to people order half caf non-fat frapawhippedcreame non-coffee dessert drinks; I ordered a cup of Christmas Blend and a oatmeal cranberry mountain bar for me and ordered a Chai Latte to take home to Andrea. The coffee smelled really good and I couldn’t wait to get on the road and take a drink. I was having one of those massive cravings that intensified the closer I got to moving beyond the smell and onto the consummation of tasting the strong coffee.

I pulled out of the shopping center and got behind a lady at the red light who was in her convertible with the top down screaming at the top of her lungs at every driver who was, in her estimation, an idiot for being in her way. She was one of those “as a matter of fact I do own the road” kinds of people. I thought it was funny enough to watch for a while. I was holding my cup of coffee in my free hand and due to the distraction hadn’t taken a drink. I decided I should set it down until I could get on the highway so that it wouldn’t be such a distraction. As I set my cup down I was watching the lady who was still screaming at people using words a discipleship pastor cannot type into his blog, and I missed the cup holder by a mere fraction of an inch and dumped the whole cup of black coffee all over the front seat of my car and my blue jeans and a book I had on the floorboard and on a business card notebook – it was everywhere.

I was not a happy camper. I was already behind schedule and out of pocket change. I was in traffic and was not about to go back and brave the line at Starbucks. All I could do was drive home and eat my oatmeal cranberry mountain bar and sniff the smell of heaven in a cup … well … not in a cup anymore. Now it was heaven all over my floorboard.

Sometimes what I want the most seems in my grasp, but my clumsiness and fascination with the irrelevant details around me puts it out of reach. Maybe I didn’t need that cup of coffee anyway. Some parts of some days stink, even when they smell like coffee. At least Andrea enjoyed the Chai.