Update:  I have not been back to visit Starbucks since I wrote my last post.  I decided to give the Starbucks drive-thru the old college try a second time for a cup of coffee this past weekend.  It gives me great pleasure (nope, no pleasure at all) to report that our town Starbucks drive-thru has not changed very much – although consistent with the same maddeningly slow, lengthy car line with customers that continue to astound me with their choice of hot or cold beverages.  Unfortunately, I myself experienced first-hand a rather irritating order from the passenger in my own vehicle on Sunday.  As I pulled up to the kiosk – fully prepared with my order:  grande coffee, 2% milk & 1 sugar, my passenger starts shouting their order creation at me.  Passenger barking: “I’ll take a grande coffee, double red eye, double cupped, double lid, half & half, 1 Sugar, 1 Splenda and a sprinkle of cinnamon!!”

Flabbergasted and slightly frightened, even shaken a bit, I find myself focusing to make certain I order my passenger’s cocktail of a coffee with careful accuracy to the number of espressos with the double cup/lid, half & half, sugar & Splenda for fear of the deranged animal I’m traveling with may go postal on me.  I now have a hard-working Barista as a verbal witness to this vocal suburban lunatic behavior.  Fully embarrassed, I calming repeat our orders and secretly wish to myself the car came equipped with a button to deplore the passenger air bag to knock my traveling companion out!  Last thing the person to my right needs is a cup of high-test coffee!  I start to re-order to only have my passenger now roaring the order over me AT THE KIOSK “Splenda, Splenda, half & half, half & half!”  At this point the Barista completely befuddled by this chaotic performance taking place outside in this car, SHE’S now shouting at ME as to which coffee order gets the 2% milk which coffee gets the half & half.  I now put my pilot hat on, I mean I am in the driver’s seat, calm everyone down, reboot and re-order both coffees.  And out of nowhere in a relaxed, unruffled, friendly voice my passenger says:  “I’d like the new egg bites.”  Me to passenger :  “What? Really?”  “No, no “egg bites” for you.”   The poor Barista stuttering and nervous asks one more time who gets the 2% milk and who gets the half & half.   My answer:  “My coffee, the simple one, gets the milk and the other one can get spit for all I care!”

15 minutes at the kiosk, a well-deserved tip to the Barista and my promise to myself to never bring my husband with me to Starbucks ever again!  And, yup, I forgot the sprinkle of cinnamon.  And that’s my Time!