And so this week’s moment of happiness despite the news.
So where the heck do you find a moment of happiness when you start the week being diagnosed with strep throat, and then a couple days later, get told you actually have mono, with strep as a secondary infection?
Why, at Starbucks, of course.
It didn’t start that way, though. Even when you’re sick, there are still things you have to do. For me, an extra chore – Semi, the car I wrote about last week, needed his emissions tested so that his license plate could be renewed. I’d put it off until the last possible minute, hoping the weather would get better, because I do not drive this car in the snow. My luck ran out this year – it’s still winter outside, but his emissions test is due by the 30th. So despite being sick, since I’m the only driver in the house, I set out today to get Semi taken care of.
Semi’s battery was replaced last week, as it would no longer hold a charge. I knew that everything had to reset in the car with a change of battery, or the emissions test would fail. To do that, you drive. At forty degrees today, I drove with the top forlornly up and went twenty minutes down the freeway, twenty minutes back, and then to the place where emissions are tested.
Semi flunked.
The car guy asked me if I’d had work done on the car recently, and when I explained about the battery, he said, “You were so close. Everything was reset except for one setting. Just drive the car a couple more days and you shouldn’t have any problem.”
A couple more days, when I shouldn’t be out driving at all. The car shouldn’t be out in winter. I should be tucked under a blanket. Sigh.
So I forlornly drove my car with the top forlornly up and decided, as long as I was out, to get Starbucks. In the drive-thru, I called out my usual order. An extra-hot grande latte, with two pumps of cinnamon dolce, and whip, please. (Incidentally, in the news today, Starbucks announced it was retiring one of its most popular syrups. I held my breath until I read that it was raspberry. Whew.)
“Oh!” the barista said. “Kathie! Come on around!”
So I did.
Several of the baristas were crowded at the window. “We saw on Facebook that you’re sick,” the barista who took my order said. “We want you to feel better! Here! We made your drink a venti, and it’s on us!”
Well, forlorn went right out the window. It would have gone straight up, if the top had been down. But through the window was enough.
I drove home, with a smile, and more warming me than my extra hot latte and my car’s heated seats.
A short moment today, as I’m supposed to be, you know, resting.
And yes, that helps. Despite. Anyway.
