A Coffee Addict's Worst Nightmare....

For the last few months I've been getting groceries on Sunday mornings. My generous neighbour gives me the use of her car, and I'm able to go, alone, to the grocery store and do my shopping. It's marvellous.

Yesterday I was unable to go, as I was working. I had a one-day gig as a Standardized Patient (more to come on THAT later).

I woke up this morning and realized something horrible. There was no coffee in the house.

No coffee.

I needed to go to the grocery store this morning anyhow, and I figured I could hold out until after we returned for my first coffee of the day. I did a little yoga to wake myself up and relax a bit. The girls and I started getting ready and I looked out the window.

It was raining. Hard.

Emma informed me that she had no intention of going out in the rain. I decided to hold off. I grabbed the jar of *shudder* instant coffee from the pantry (left over from this summer's camping expedition. It was fair trade organic, at least. Unfortunately, that doesn't really make up for the fact that it was instant.

I boiled the water and made the coffee. Then it hit me. No cream. Not even any milk.

Okay then. Soy milk it would have to be.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this phenomenon, sometimes soy milk will curdle slightly when it hits a hot beverage. And guess what? That's exactly what happened to me.

I drank it anyhow.

I think I can say without reservation that I had the single worst cup of coffee of my life this morning. And still I drank it.

It wasn't long gone when I looked out the window. The rain had subsided. I loaded the girls into the bike trailer, snapped down the rain protection, and headed out. About 5 minutes out of the house, the rain began pouring down. Screw it. I needed my fix. And that instant-coffee-curdled-soymilk brew wasn't going to cut it. I pressed onward.

The rain stopped as we arrived at the grocery store. I did my shopping, cranky and impatient without having had my proper cup of morning love...focused only on getting the hell out of there to get home and have a decent cup of coffee.

We stepped out the store, and the rain began again. It rained for our entire walk home. At least the girls were warm and dry.

But as I sit here, tired and wet from this morning's outing, sipping a glorious cup of dark Italian roast, I can only think one thing: It was worth it.