“Starbucks, We Need to See Other People”

For those of you reading who know me well, you are very aware of my obsession with Venti Non-Fat Caramel Macchiatos -  prepared upside-down with 2 Splendas (sometimes extra hot – depends on the situation).  It doesn’t matter if I sound like a douche saying it, because when I walk up to order it, I totally own it.  I am not scared to say that I LOVE STARBUCKS and everything it has to offer.  I love its coffee, its specialty drinks, the holiday drinks, the delicious sweet treats….EVERYTHING.  I once pondered leaving a semi lucrative career in the banking industry to pursue a career opportunity as a barista just to learn how to make everything so I could do it at home.  (I also may have fantasized about this with Chick-fil-A too, but that’s story for another day).

I could drink my Venti Non-Fat Caramel Macchiato – prepared upside-down with 2 Splendas (sometimes extra hot – depends on the situation) every day, multiple times a day, and I would be a very happy woman.  Its like a little piece of heaven has fallen into my cup and it’s just for me.  I have had this love affair for a few years.  I think there is a direct correlation with the beginning of my addiction to the timing of a Starbucks being built inside my building at work (a mere few steps away from where I usually sit).  It became my social outing.  Friends would stop by and say ‘hey, let’s grab a bucks’, my meetings started happening there because it was a great meeting ground for those people walking from different buildings, I mean hell we even started code names that related to the place.  My life was then tangled in the stronghold of Starbucks, and there was no way out.  When I say my Starbucks ladies would see me and have my drink ready before I ordered, I would be telling the honest truth.  God I miss those baristas.

I had a realization on Monday, January 3^rd when I came into the office, set down my laptop, walked to Starbucks, came back and pulled up the weightwatcher.com site only to find that of the 35 points a day that I am afforded for sustenance, MY VERY OWN SIGNATURE DRINK WAS GOING TO COST ME 6 OF THOSE SACRED POINTS.  It was like a stab in the heart.  It was at this time that I went into a 5 minute deep depression.  I was coming to the realization that this was no longer going to be my signature drink because my god I needed to eat during the day and if my Starbucks drink (non-fat, remember) was going to take up that many points, well I may starve by the end of the day!  This was a dark time.  I had to go through all 5 stages of grief in only 5 minutes!!  I touched on denial and isolation, then anger, then I started bargaining with the Starbucks woman on my cup to please tell me this was all a lie.  Then in the 3^rd minute, when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, I hit depression - and all of the sudden I was standing at the door step of acceptance.  In this form, acceptance is defined as the point “when the anger, sadness and mourning have tapered off. The person simply accepts the reality of the loss.”

I was free from my Venti Non-Fat Caramel Macchiato – prepared upside-down with 2 Splendas (sometimes extra hot – depends on the situation) addiction.  Done.

I am happy to report that I am now perusing a love affair with the Venti Skinny Vanilla Latte because let’s get real I still have a lot of Starbucks gift cards to use, and those are only like 2 points.  Did you really think I could give up everything?  HELL NO!  J