Coffee

Lately I've had a hankering for a cup of coffee.

Now, you have to understand: I don't drink coffee. I've never liked coffee. The smell of fresh-roasted coffee in the morning can pretty much ruin a good breakfast as far as I'm concerned.

I've had actual coffee four times in my life. Once was as a kid when I had a bad cold at the cabin up north and we didn't have any decongestant so my dad made me try some coffee for some logical reason I can't remember. Next time was in college in England (where everyone drinks coffee, as well as tea) when my English professor took all of us out for coffee because that's the type of thing professors do at small colleges in England, and once he'd bought them all I was too embarrassed to not drink it, so I loaded it up with milk and sugar til it was almost potable and drank tiny sips. The most recent two times were entirely by choice and weren't very memorable.

So for some reason, I've been thinking about working myself up for a stop at Starbucks or somewhere, just to try a cup. Preferably with whipped cream, can you get it with whipped cream? Yesterday I was in Trader Joe's and I passed by the pot where they had the coffee samples, then as I was doing my shopping I thought to myself "Hey, what the heck, I'll go sample their coffee and get rid of this hankering for free!" So I headed back to the coffee sample table and...the pot was gone! Sampling done for the day.

Then today we were at a birthday party at the park, and one of the moms went to Starbucks to pick up coffee for everyone, but guess what? While she was taking orders, I was tagging along on the kids' treasure hunt because Evan refused to participate without me. I had no idea anyone was going to Starbucks, much less taking orders for others. So, again: no coffee for me. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

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I was sitting next to Evan's old Sunday school teacher Robin in church today, watching Chris' choir sing. Robin leaned over and said to me "You know, I see so much of Evan in Chris." I watched Chris singing for a minute and she's right. It's not the facial features, it was something in the tilt of his head and the earnest expression on his face as he sang, that made me think of Evan when he has something very important to say.

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Went to pick up Ben at his Sunday School class after church. Sitting on the table near Ben was a cute little coiled up clay snake. Sitting on the table next to Ben's classmate A. was an extra long clay snake, the length of the table, with a funny nose.

Ali: Is this little clay creature yours, Ben?
Ben: Yep.
Ali: Cute! Is it a snake?
Ben: Yeah.
A: And this is my tapeworm!

Hee. Ben's always said A was a little weird, but today after class he said he's decided maybe he's going to be friends with him after all.