I woke up too early this morning. As usual. Much too early. And I was up too late last night. Much too late. But I was mesmerized by the images on the television screen. America is changing and there's a whole new world out there. I hope we can all walk arm in arm and work together. I hope there is no anger and resentment and no ill will. I hope we can all put our differences aside and focus on our similarities.
When the bright red numbers on the cable box shouted out to me that it was 6:00 am I switched over to MSNBC and Morning Joe. There was a clam on the set, an unusually calm. And I was unusually calm until I saw it. In Mika's hand. I saw not the tell-tale white and green Starbucks cup(Venti?) in her hand. Today I saw something else, a red one! I rubbed my eyes in disbelief to make sure that I was not half asleep. But there it was, plain as day, clear as the last night's election results... The Red Cup! I nearly jumped up and bolted out of bed to run down to my local Starbucks to get one. But the kids were all asleep. I would have to wait a while.
This afternoon, after dropping Alexander off at preschool I set off to run my many errands. I had to return some books to the library, exchange some jeans for Christopher, drop some coats off at the dry cleaners, pick up some bread from the bakery, get a few items at the grocery store... After I dropped the jeans off I decided to head over to Starbucks. I just had to see if the Red Cup was really there. I just had to!
I walked in and there it was, a vision before my eyes! I was happy. My day would be good. My day would be great. I had reason to be happy. Those red cups make me happy. There was a menu of holiday drinks on the wall. I chose the Gingerbread Latte. Dare to be wild! Live on the edge. I ordered one. A grande, 1% with no whip. And, because I am impulsive. Because I cannot look temptation in the face I bought a Christmas CD. I was now really happy. Really, really happy. As I was waiting for my drink the barista asked if I didn't want some whip. No. No whip, thanks, I told her. Then she told me that they were doing something special this year. The gingerbread lattes were being dressed up with some crystalized ginger. Real crystalized ginger she assured me. And because I am impulsive. (Read sucker!) And because I can not look temptation in the face I agreed to have the whip and the crystalized ginger. And hot damn it was good!
So I walked, Okay bounded, out of the store with my CD and coffee in hand. I was happy. The holidays make me happy. Holiday music makes me happy. And my little Red Cup was making me happy. The only thing that was slightly unfortunate was that it was 70 and humid out. I would have preferred a crisper, cooler day. But I was having a perfect moment. So perfect it was that I raced right to the car to play the CD and it was not until I got home that I had completely forgotten about all the rest of my errands!