What is this "morning" you speak of?

What a wonderful Saturday morning. I had to get up early because I had to go to the bank, so I was up at 9. Now, usually I sleep until 11 or 12 but today I had to be up and I sort of bribed myself by saying that I could go right back to bed after I went to the bank. I stumble around for a while putting in contacts, brushing teeth, brushing hair, checking email. Then I become aware of outside. Kind of foggy... sun peeking out every once in a while. Hm, wonder what the temperature is like. 52 degrees. That's not too bad. I thank all that is good in the world that winter is pretty much over for us here.

So I went to the bank and on my way back, there was the 7-11 (Sleven). As I sit at the light I start to think about my new addiction to having that morning coffee. It used to be that I might have a cup of office coffee (offcoff) on those rough mornings and that turned into having a cup every morning that I was at work, and that turned into "I must have a cup before 9:30 or things will begin to get unpleasant" and now I'm to the point that I even want it on the weekends. So I'm sitting at the light thinking that I bet Sleven has some coffee in there. I go inside and find the coffee. I expected a pot of regular and decaf and some little creamers. Y'all, they had like 10 pots of coffee brewing (and that's not binary, so you techno-geeks can forget that joke right this instant!), a carousel of flavor syrups, marshmallows, powders like cinnamon and maple sugar, another carousel of flavored creams and a hot chocolate/capuccino machine. I was just in awe. As I stood there kind of taking it all in, a lady who was finishing up her concoction saw me and said, "My man keeps wanting to get me a coffee maker for the house, but I keep telling him that I like coming here instead." I start to inspect all the different pots of coffee: vanilla, hazelnut, strawberry banana? Friendly lady says, "Yeah, they've got it all here, it seems, but I'm not so sure about that strawberry banana." I giggle a little bit and pick up the pot and take a sniff. It's way too weird and sweet for coffee so I make a face like "yick!" She laughs and says, "Now if it was a smoothie, I'd be all for it." We small talk a little more and she goes to pay. I was thinking this is really nice for a Sleven! So I choose the hazelnut like I always do and start spinning the carousel and looking for anything I might want to add and here comes another really nice lady! She's all, "My husband and I distribute those machines (motions to the hot chocolate machine), but I still come in here and pay full price for it." Y'all, I still haven't had my coffee so I'm still a little out of it so I come up with the blazingly witty comeback, "Really?" And she's fixing up her hot chocolate and I'm choosing just the right creamer and we're small talking and she puts the marshmallows in her hot chocolate and sets the cannister back in the carousel, spins it around until the marshmallow cannister comes back around and puts more into her drink. She's all, "It's Saturday. Can't have too many marshmallows!"

Man, how could I have driven right past this place for the past three years? And where did all these super-friendly people come from? I have to say, the past couple of weeks I've been feeling a lot happier. I'm sure it all started with the Mingo Fishtrap show. I was on a natural high for at least three days and there's a good possibility that I might still be on it, propelled by starting Gabi in her new, nicer, and much closer day care. That has put me in a much much better mood all around. The citizens of Denton County thank you, New Day Care! Or maybe it's the daily caffeine boost? I have no idea. Eh, I don't really care either. All I know is that I feel awesome and nobody gonna break-a my stride. Nobody is gonna hold me down. Oh no! I've got to keep on movin.

Well, morning is technically over and to tell the truth... I'm a little sad that such a lovely morning has come to an end. Well, here's to a lovely afternoon.