All About A Cup of Coffee

For many years I have had the desire to write, and today I decided to throw caution to the wind and get busy writing.  I always hesitated to write for fear of not expressing myself clearly. It seems since I turned 40 in October, I am less concerned with what people think and more concerned with being happy and being true to myself. Please bear with me as I develop some confidence and work at improving my writing skills.

Steve and I haven’t recorded in a while, so I thought it would be fun to write this short story. I plan on telling this story to Steve and all of you during our next recording.

Over the holiday break my youngest son and I were heading out to my parent’s house to help my mom prepare dinner for Christmas Eve.  They live in the next town over, about 8 miles away. I called before I left my house and offered to pick up Dunkin Donut’s coffee on our way over.  I had every intention of going to the DD in their town, but as I was driving something told me to go to the DD closer to my home.  So I followed my gut and quickly turned into the parking lot before I passed it.  I pulled up to the drive thru and waited to place my order. I am not sure how many of you listened to the recording where  Steve and I talked about paying it forward. He told a story about how he paid for the person behind him one morning at a DD drive thru.  I always wanted to do this but wasn’t able to muster up enough courage.  Well little did I know that this was going to be the day I was going to pay it forward.  I finally placed my order after waiting a bit due to the long line. As I was about to pull up to the window a woman approached my car and asked me if she could cut in front for just a minute.  They made her coffee wrong and she wanted them to fix it.  I was not in a rush and am usually pretty patient, so I told her it was no problem and to go ahead.  It did dawn on me that she probably should have walked into the DD considering the drive thru line was long, but maybe she didn’t think of it.  Within 30 seconds the gentleman in the car behind me started screaming and honking his horn.  He carried on and on so much so that the lady’s eyes began to well up with tears.  Even I was started to get a little nervous. I am not sure if he was more upset with me for letting her go or with her for getting out of her car and walking up to the window. At this point the lady in front of me quickly collected her coffee, hopped in her car and drove off. As I paid for my coffee, I realized that this was going to be the day that I pay it forward.  I paid for the gentleman’s order and asked the lady at the register to wish him a happy holiday and to encourage him to smile.  As we pulled away my son asked me why I would pay for a mean man’s coffee. I explained to him that sometimes people need someone to be nice to them in spite of their own poor behavior.  So that was my pay it forward story.  I guess I just needed a little support and encouragement from the universe.  My hope is that this kind gesture calmed this gentleman down and helped him realize that it was just a cup of coffee.