Greetings Steemit,

This morning I slept in... like... ACTUALLY slept in, not just getting up at 6am and saying "Well, I tried". Opening my eyes to the very unfamiliar sight of daylight sneaking in through the curtain gap, I steadily exited my dream-state and proceeded to initiate a startup process.

Around 10am the imprinted morning coffee addiction twinged, so I slipped on my super-comfortable pair of Salomon running shoes, and proceeded up the hill to the street where my vehicle was parked. Even when pulling onto the road to begin this 3 minute, 1.2 mile trek, I felt as is something was 'off' - which I promptly summed up to be the fact that I was 4 hours late to see my drive-thru buddies that I see 5 days a week, and I was not used to making this drive in the glaringly bright & beaming sunlight.

The trip to my coffee stop was uneventful, and I was met at the window with a clerk I have never seen working there before. Most days I'm met with the familiar face of one of two employees, one female - one male, who are uber friendly and even joke with me about the amount of Ice Cream I purchase from their establishment on an almost daily basis. Its one of those things where I just started going there all the time, and now because of that, the staff knows me, my routine, and enough to call me out when I order something unusual that 'Doesn't make sense' to them as they pause to clarify. The banter is fun and disarming.. as it feels like that "Cheers" mentality which states that we all enjoy going somewhere where everyone knows your name.

The previously unidentified employee that I communicated with today hosted none of that friendly banter. I placed my order for "1 large black coffee, and that's it today, thank you" at the drive-thru box with succinct precision, completely half awake still and not expecting her gruff response of "1 large black coffee?? Is that it?? You don't want to add ANYTHING else to this order?" spoken in a blunt and not at all welcoming tone.

When we met at the window I had to wait for a while. In my attempts to be 'aware' of my surroundings, as well as having been someone that stops at that window 5-6 days a week, I can tell you that the coffee carafe is located about 3 steps from the drive-thru window to the left, and it takes an employee on average about 6-10 seconds to pour a cup, depending on the size ordered. This morning's clerk didn't appear at the drive-thru window for several minutes. She then proceeded to restock the napkins & some other items as I watched awaiting contact. After the restocking, she disappeared again, leaving my caffeine addiction unattended.

I wanted to knock on the window and say "Hi, I'm here more than you are, is Nora or Allen working? I know they can solve this problem for me." yet decided to ride it out with hands folded, as social stigma's dictate. A minute later she returned, pumped the coffee into a cup, took payment & handed me the long awaited piping hot cup of black gold. I placed the cup in the console & proceeded to clear the area, onward home. As I drifted into a part of the parking lot that was clear of all traffic, I reached down for the cup and proceeded to tip it to my lips.

Its honestly difficult to type out the next sentence without throwing in a couple "That's What She Said!"(s) in there.. yet in an attempt to retain professionalism, here we go without any.

I was expecting a blast of hot liquid to enter my mouth/throat/esophagus, and was prepared for that temperature transition. I was admittedly woefully unprepared for that blast of piping hot liquid to land in my lap, prior to it reaching its intended destination.

For you see friends, I was handed a cup that was damaged upon the rim (pictured above), and as opposed to replacing this comprised cup with a non-damaged item that could actually create a liquid tight seal, our aforementioned clerk had decided to just jam a lid on the broken cup and serve it to me. Upon recollection of that hand off, she was still pushing the lid down with her free hand, even as she was reaching out the window to hand it to me. I didn't really notice it at the time, but now sitting in a car with a crotch full of burning black coffee, it was all starting to make sense.

After a string of many curse words & doing as much damage control as possible, I proceeded to assess the situation and plot my next course of action. Do I walk into my beloved coffee shop stop and ream the new kid? She was obviously having difficulty seating the lid, and perhaps some training is needed to prevent this from happening again? Was I part responsible for not realizing the blunder?

Playing out that hypothetical in my mind left me standing at a counter in public, my khaki shorts stained coffee black in a very noticeable and comical location, while also shattering the mold of 'hey that's that nice guy that's here everyday' which has been established over years of friendly contact to anyone recognizing me in that moment. Despite my internal anger that was burning as hot as a crotch full of coffee, I decided to let the Universe have this one, and I would 'be an adult' and just move on, conceding that 1 bad interaction out of several hundred positive interactions is pretty good odds in my favor.

Having made my decision, I pulled out onto the road, pointed home. Considering the current condition of having my pants soaked in a still somewhat warm & sticky liquid, my driving was paced and completely well mannered, as I drive a stick shift and venturing home in those conditions while having to blast the clutch while shifting was uncomfortable and not an option. While traveling in the right hand side slow lane & doing exactly the speed limit, I started to approach the parking lot access to a large church that had several cars poised waiting to exit.

This church has so much traffic in/out of its lot on Sunday that the police show up and manage the car flow as to not disrupt the main road everyone is trying to pull out onto. I have no idea what they may have been doing today, on a Saturday, but it was pretty much the same situation minus the police presence to manage the chaos.

As I approached, a vehicle pulled out with plenty of room to safely do so. The vehicle that was behind them, a black minivan, came flying up to the exit and pulled out in front of me unsafely, leaving me needing to either slam on my brakes (which would send the remainder of my unsecured coffee flying) or to transition to the inside lane (passing him at a seemingly high rate of speed despite my only doing the speed limit), which is what I ended up doing to avoid either slamming my brakes, or slamming directly into the back of his vehicle.

As I passed him, I made note to make eye contact, finding a skinny man with grey hair & beard giving ME a dirty look, as if I had done something wrong. Confused, I shook my head and kept going until having to stop at the next stop light. Mr. Careless Driver then proceeded to roll up along side of me, and with both our windows down due to the nice weather, smiled smugly while yelling "You in a hurry, Buddy?", then pulled passed me before I could respond.

This is a moment where my brain had a realization, and again began to play a couple of hypotheticals out in my mind.

The first hypothetical is to pull up to the driver and retort "Bitch - I know your vehicle, your license plate, your face, and where you go to church. I wasn't in a hurry before, but NOW I'm in a hurry for next weekend, so we can meet up and have a chat. I'll see you next weekend, Buddy!" which is most likely what the younger me would have said/done.

The big realization came in knowing that today's present me isn't going to go that route... as I passed him via the flow of traffic, turned home 10 seconds later, and most likely will never see him again. So in playing out the second hypothetical, I decided to just 'let it go' and not allow that fucker's negativity to put me off-center, despite studying enough MMA in my free time to want to react in a FAR more physically pleasing manner.

I decided the very best option I had is to just go home and 'Let it Go' by writing about it. Posting about this weirdness on Steemit may even earn me an SBD or Two, which is probably a better option than costing myself many Fiat dollars in legal, medical, automotive fees.

Upon arriving home I showered, then decided to investigate what had caused the initial coffee spill that had started this whirlwind of chaos that had consumed the last 10 minutes of my life. This led to the discovery of seeing the aforementioned faulty cup for the first time. No wonder the clerk was having such a hard time affixing the lid while handing it to me!

My final observation came in remembering that the dickhead driver who cut me off initially pulled out of a Church... leaving my brain stuck in circles of "How the Fuck do you attend a Church service smiling and happy, only to not make it as far as 'pulling out of the Church parking lot' before you start acting like a disrespectful Cunt?!?!?!"

I don't go to Church, as I mostly try to operate via 'Catma' vs 'Dogma' - That said: This dude apparently missed the point, as I would have to assume the lesson plan for today's morning service's imprinting did not include "Yelling smug comments to people after you've cut them off".

I also usually do not suggest people read Bible quotes in attempts to correct behavioral issues that NEED to be corrected... but seeking to place myself on the same level as the subject in question... I'd like to offer this helpful verse that I actually believe in and practice myself.

In doing so... maybe he'll learn a valuable life lesson.

Cheers Steemit!

~GiftedGaia

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-Who is: GiftedGaia?

-Who is: GiftedGaia 1 Year Later?

-My DJ Mixes Archive

-My Youtube Page (lots of Drone Videos)

-GiftedGaia's Favorite Quotations on Life and Music

-Photogenic Adventures Series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

-+1 Point on the 'Humans are Good' side: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5