grit and glory

My alarm went off at 3:50 this morning. It reaffirmed that I am definitely NOT a morning person. But my 6:20 AM departure for Seattle necessitated that I wake up at such an ungodly hour.

I flew from Detroit to Atlanta where I caught another flight to Seattle. In Atlanta, there was a sign at my departure gate which said that the flight was delayed, but did not offer any information on how long the wait may be. I milled around a bit to see if anything was happening or if there were any staff/crew around to ask (there weren’t). I finally decided to visit the Starbucks kiosk across the hall.

After being in the States for a few weeks now, I have my Starbucks ordering down pat. I used to smirk and chuckle at some of my friends’ drink orders–using all the right Starbucks vernacular–but really it was just beverage-order-envy. So now I’m feeling good about knowing exactly what I like and exactly how to order it.

The line at Starbucks was rather long. The woman taking the orders was shouting out, “What can I get you?” while she was making the drink for the previous customer. She was very efficient, but also very impatient with people not so versed in the politically correct manner of ordering beverages at Starbucks. I kept repeating my drink order over and over in my head, determined to not be one of “them”.

I’m the next in line. She shouts, “What can I get you?” And my mouth freezes. My mind is going over the drink mantra it’s been repeating, but my mouth stalls a bit before finally blurting it out: “Grande non-fat, extra hot chai latte…please!” Phew. The Starbucks pressure is, at times, overwhelming.

I get my drink, take one sip, and start walking back to my gate just as they open it up for boarding. Alas, the new FAA regulations barring all liquids on board required that I pitch my completely full grande non-fat, extra hot chai latte in the nearest trash receptacle… Shame!