From the front door of our office building I can turn left or right. If I go left, I walk to the next intersection, and there’s a Starbucks. If I go right, at that intersection I can left one block to a Starbucks, forward one block to a Starbucks, or right one block to a shopping mall with two Starbucks in it—one in the atrium at a kiosk, and one a little bit further inside.
I’ve been to them all. My favorite is the kiosk, because its usually the least busy. Usually. I go because I have a card and its tied to an app and I get nerdjoy from using my phone screen to pay for things. Also, I read that cocoa and caffeine and cinnamon are good for your brain, so I like a mocha. Also, their tea-lemonades are a good afternoon pick-me-up, an if I bring my own cup, not too expensive.
But today I brought in my own container of milk so I could have some free n easy office coffee. The other first-arriver of the day always makes it as part of his daily ritual, and I’ve been meaning to imbibe. I still believe in caffeine, and as much nerdjoy as phone-screen-buying gives me, not-paying-at-all gives me another kind of joy.
The cups were delicious, by the way. I had two. Milk and sugar.
This is not to say that I’ll never go back to Starbucks. There’s just too many to not be pulled in to their gravity, not to mention the free wifi when I need to kill time and/or write a blog post or twelve. And that nerdjoy is compelling—and the app also awards you “stars” for your purchases and when you get enough you earn a new “level.” Can’t get THAT at work.
