Little Moments

Like most children I looked forward to Christmas every year. Unlike now, it seemed that it took Christmas forever to roll around. With anticipation I waited to see what surprises Mom and Dad would have for me. My husband still harasses me about the fact that I would make note of the dimensions of the doll I wanted from the catalogue and measure my presents to see if (allowing for packing) the dimensions of the wrapped gift tucked back under the tree was a close match. Yep, as a child those little markers gave me something to look forward to and that's how I made it through the year. Now that I'm an adult the things I look forward to have taken on a whole different dimension. What gets me throught the week may be.. making it to my morning workout... having lunch with a friend... just little stolen moments that keep me putting one foot in front of the other in anticipation. One of my favorite rituals is my Friday morning reward... Starbucks! I look forward to celebrating the end of my workweek with a Venti White Chocolate Mocha (heavy on the white chocolate). Seriously, on Wednesday I start counting the hours till I can daintily (NOT!) sip (gulp) my large cup of liquid heaven... It gets me through the week. Ya, so this morning I truly stumble out of bed with a raging headache that kept me up most of the night and prevented me from making it to my morning workout. Ugh!!! But... the silver lining and the thing that rolled me out of bed was the anticipation of my Friday ritual. My husband suggested I call in sick to work since I felt so bad, but I informed him that this was Friday and it was my Starbucks day so everything would be well with my soul once I got my fix. Surprisingly he wanted to know why I only went to Starbucks on Friday... Duh!!! I'm practicing an amazing amount of self-control (smirk) and keeping a strict eye on our budget like he's always asking me to do (dramatic eye roll)!!!! Give me some credit why don'tch? anyway, I get my paint and powder on (as my Mom always says), tease my bump up to the highest altitude I can muster on a Friday, slid on my jeans (cause it's casual Friday) and jolt out the door and head for the hospital (we don't have an actual Starbucks, we have a hospital with a mini me Starbucks inside). I get to the hospital having completely forgotten about the raging headache and reach for the doors to the cafeteria when I see it... This huge handwritten sign hanging on the milk steamer thingy that says... "OUT OF ORDER"!!! I kind of hesitate but walk on in where I find the little girl who knows what I want before I ever get to the counter. I look at her with literal tears in my eyes and say, "It's broke?" The guy behind her kind of looks at me then looks at her like "Should I hide, cause she looks a little unstable?" She just smiles and tells me yeh, it's broke and I'll just have to run down to the convenience store like she did. I really just stared at her in disbelief that she would even suggest a convenience store could be a replacement for my cup of heaven. My headache returned with a vengeance, the room began to spin and in my mind I crumpled to the floor in a fetal position and began to sob. In reality I slumped out of the hospital, muttering to myself like a schizophrenic psychopath. It's pretty much at this point that I realized just how much those little rewards mean to me, and how much I miss them when circumstances prevent me from "getting my fix". They make every unpleasant thing that comes my way bearable (gentle sigh). Next week, if the machine is fixed, I'll appreciate that Venti White Chocolate Mocha a lot more. If the machine isn't fixed... Well, Heads - Will - Roll!!! Ya, it's the little moments that I look forward to.