It's just coffee

Supposedly there are 87,000 different drink combinations at Starbucks. (This determined from a quick google search and a random blog find circa 2006. If it was true way back then, well, there are probably even more options now. Like the new Dark Cherry Mocha . You know you want one. But I digress.)

Okay, okay, so with all these possibilities out there, listen to what happened to me the other day and tell me it's not super strange.

I am a decaf drinker, generally. I could spend an entire blog defending my choice to go sans caffeine (at least until my lunchtime diet coke), but that's not really the point here. Just background.

So I drink decaf in the morning, which is not normal, and I drink lattes. Decaf grande lattes. This has been my drink since roughly 2007, when I said "so long" to the caffeine. Before that, I would order a venti dark roast (yes, I was addicted), and before that my daily dose was a grande skim chai. Before that I was in college and could only afford Starbucks on special occasions. I'm not sure if it's normal to remember the details of every coffee you've ever ordered (especially when you forget the last names of college swim teammates), but I'm going to guess it's not as unusual as you might think.

Well, the other day (let's call it Thursday, but this is NOT an April Fools joke), I was waiting in line at Starbucks mentally rehearsing my order ("decaf grande latte and a pumpkin bread please"), when I heard the counter girl holler out "DECAF GRANDE LATTE" and the barista echo back. Hold up. Was I speaking out loud? Was I next in line and didn't know it? No! The girl two ahead of me in line has my Exact Same Order.

I suddenly found myself wanting to go up to this person. What is your name? How long have you been drinking decaf? Do you ever feel a little ashamed when you order? Do you want to be my friend? But I didn't, of course. I just kinda stared and wondered until my reverie was broken by the next order. "ICED DECAF GRANDE LATTE". Iced decaf grande latte.

No way. But it's true .. my ears were not playing tricks on me!

You can imagine the confusion behind the Starbucks counter when I placed my order, the third decaf latte in a row. "Is this a re-order?" asks the barista. "No, a new drink," says the counter girl. "So a decaf latte, iced decaf latte, and another decaf latte?" "Yes, that's right." Eerie.

Has anything like this ever happen to you? Do you agree with me that our coffee choices define us? That it really means something to share a Starbucks order? Or... is it just coffee, after all?

I hesitate to even share what the person in line after me ordered on this particular day. Not another decaf. No, she ordered a grande skim chai.

NavelGazer, are you out there?

Hello world. Or rather, hello Kath and Greta. (Miss you both.)

So, it's been roughly 356 days since I've checked in on Life on Lombard, and now that I'm starting to see the light at the end of the Harbor tunnel, I thought it might be time to start updating this baby a bit more frequently.

No, that's not entirely true. The thing is, I'm eating this chocolate crumb cake right now straight from the package, and I've run out of other things to do online so I'm blogging to give myself a reason to keep sitting at the table and plowing through the cake. Plus, I've been inspired recently by blogs and blog talk around town. Plus, I'm really wondering who this NavelGazer is who posted (and then removed) a comment on the last post (January 27ish, 2009).

NG, you are the real reason I am blogging right now. Are you still out there? Why did you remove your comment? What did it say? And how in the world did you find this blog?