OT-Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

For my 40th birthday, I dumped Starbucks. It had nothing to do with world events or the sudden realization that they were an evil empire or that paying $2.75 plus tip for a caffeinated beverage wasn't worth it. I never drank coffee until I turned thirty, and I felt like a decade of whole hearted dedication to a single thing was enough. AND TRUST ME! IT WAS WHOLEHEARTED DEDICATION!!!!

So we're done. And like all breakups, it is the unanticipated consequences that bite you.

Do you really want to hurt me?? Do you really want to make me cry???

For now, I need to avoid all strip malls. Which is not easy in Metropolitan Washington.

I guess that's why they call it the blues....

Really, I need to avoid every inch of Washington. I was having a serious discussion with a colleague in his office the other day and I swear I couldn't take my eyes off the Venti cup resting on his desk. It was taunting my resolve which was only two days old at the time.

I ain't missing you at all....

I'm drinking tea again. Heavily.

Time can never mend, the careless whisper of a good friend....

And I'm lying to tea. Telling her I loved her all along, and that I didn't really mean the dedication to the point of obsession that Starbucks became. When will I ever see Ellie? Who will notice when I travel? Without the oracle, how will I know who I am?

Here they come, dogs of lust....

AND - I've fallen off the wagon. Only once, and it was because of social pressure. I was on a girl date with time to kill in between events. What else were we going to do???? Bruce would have understood and steered me to some highway where there are no Cracker Barrel esque tall green and white circular signs singing the siren song of espresso shots.

Don't answer me, don't break the silence, don't let me in. Run away and hide from everyone

Speaking of espresso, this Starbucks thing started getting serious only after Bruce and I returned from Italy. It was there I learned how good coffee could really be and began this elicit romance in earnest.

There's a tear in my beer, cause I'm crying for you dear, you are on my lonely mind

Maybe if I go BACK to where it all started I can exorcise the internal voices clamoring every time we pass a mermaid.

You oughta know...

That and make an angry break up mix tape....

Pics from First Day of School

Evie on her first day.

A good luck hug from big sis.

This is Juliette's first day of school.

And what she did when she got home....

Cox Farms

Juliette and Evie went to Cox Farms with Bruce and kids from Juliette's school yesterday. Here they are with some special friends enjoying all Cox Farms has to offer.

I don't know about you, but I wish I had gotten to go!