You Know It's GOT To Be a Good Day

I'm a creature of habit. Every day before work, I stop at Starbuck's for a little caffeinated pick-me-up. As a cost-saving measure, I'll usually go for a straight coffee, which is still $2.00 for a venti. It's been way too hot to be drinking coffee in the afternoon, so I've been splurging on iced lattes. This afternoon I dropped the girls off at my in-laws, then pulled in to the nearest Starbuck's to get my fix. There was one gentleman in line in front of me. I call him "gentleman" because he was wearing a long-sleeved dress shirt and tie. That puts him in "gentleman" status in my book. If he's wearing a t-shirt and shorts, then he's a "dude". Why I'm trying to explain all this, I don't know.

Anywho, this "gentleman" was purchasing a butt-load of gift cards, only I didn't realize it at the time. The barista asked me what I wanted and proceeded to create my tasty beverage. In the meantime, I waited behind the gentleman. And waited. After about a minute I wondered what was going on. Admittedly, I was a little slow on the draw, but give me a break, I hadn't yet enjoyed my caffeinated beverage! The gentleman was just standing there while the cashier was running transactions. I peeked around him and noticed a hefty stack of gift cards piling up on the counter. This was going to take a while.

The barista finished preparing my drink and brought it over to the registers and slid it across the counter in my direction. He analyzed the situation, studying the mound of gift cards and the ratio of cards processed to total cards. He then looked over at the unused register and I could see the wheels of his mind churning as he weighed the time/energy aspect of logging into the register and ringing up my transaction. This took mere seconds, and after reaching a conclusion, he grabbed my drink and slid it further in my direction as he declared, "Here you go, it's on the house."

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!

I thanked him profusely, grabbed my FREE drink and skipped out the door like a school girl (as a father of two school girls, I'm an expert on this). I LOVE Starbuck's, and I LOVE FREE STUFF! How could today NOT be a good day?

Wait...don't answer that.