Topic: Weirdness
Ya know, I'm not one to like coffee. I've tried it numerous times and it just doesn't turn me on. When people hear of this they look at me like I've just hit them. Sorry folks, don't like ANYTHING that tastes like coffee. Nothing that has coffee in it even! (Why do people do that??? Start naming off stuff to see if they can catch me. It's like seafood. I don't like it!! Nope, not shrimp, not shark, not crab, not fish. NOTHING IN THE SEAFOOD CATEGORY!!!!! But I digress. . . ) One thing I DO like about coffee is the smell. I grew up in a house of coffee inhalers. In case you need a definition of a coffee inhaler, it's not a person that puts coffee beans or grinds into a bag and takes puffs from it. Oh no, a coffee inhaler is a person that will literally inhale the coffee that is too scalding hot to actually let it touch their mouths. So they inhale it straight down. This is what I lived with. To this day, my dad will literally drink cup after cup after cup after cup all day long at work (sorry dad, I did work with ya for awhile you know!! And BTW, Doesn't Uncle Rick still have your Irby cup?!?!?).
Wow, I am kind of spouting off in different directions today!
When Chris and I got married, we didn't register for a coffee pot. We did, however, receive one as a gift. We didn't use it until recently. . .because Chris has become a user. He is now an official coffee user. On Saturday mornings I can smell it through the house. It's a nice comforting memory for me :) But the real topic of this post is Starbucks. I personally don't see the love for Starbucks that others do, even Gretchen posted about it today. I've been in there one time and I drank rootbeer!! Chris absolutely LOVES his $5 cup of coffee and swears by them. So he's hooked on Starbucks also. But what's wild is they didn't really appear here in the city until about 2 years ago. Now there's one on the corner and on the opposite corner is a Target. . .with a Starbucks in it! I always saw them as the coffee house for the snobbish and jerky. I mean seriously, $5 for coffee???? But I figured they knew what they were doing, they are, afterall, a massive chain. But my opinion of those that purchase their beverages has dramatically changed.
We go to the mall to walk and people watch. Cale enjoys it and it gets us out of the house. As we sat upstairs waiting for the water show, I glanced over to these BIG HUGE HAIRY MEN, one dressed like he'd just unmounted from his horse and the other like he'd just turned off his big bulldozer on the construction site. Picturing them now?? They were two very interesting chaps, talking and sitting at their glass table. . .and my eyes wandered to their big rough dirty hands, both pairs wrapped tightly around a Starbucks cup. Luckily Cale grabbed my attention away or I would have had to pick my jaw up off the floor. I never thought that blue collar workers were Starbucks drinkers. But I'll be. . .Starbucks appeals to all sorts and apparently is also an addiction had by people in different realms.
So the moral to the story is, although I don't like what they serve, Starbucks taught me that they can unite the different cultures and ethnic groups. How many chains can say that??