A sanity saver for the caffeinated

It sounds stupid today, last week and tomorrow, but during my stress-filled caregiving days when I was this close to becoming a statistic, I had a meltdown while ordering coffee.Because the thing is to give your name when ordering, I’d give “Michelle” and sure enough they’d either misspell it or get it all wrong and write “Michael,” which would invariably be shortened to “Mike, your order is ready!” One day when I purposely didn’t answer, the baristaess got huffy. I explained that I was Michelle and not Michael or Mike. She got huffier and said, “It says ‘Mike’” and held up the cup for me to see. Uh oh. A peace came over me. You know the kind. One of those peaces where the next words are “THAR SHE BLOWS!!!” And she did. Of course as any Freudian scholar—or 6-year-old for that matter—knows, it was never about the coffee or the barista.My husband was dying and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it. Today’s lesson? To avoid confusion, stress and possible jail time, I recommend having an Ordering Name. Even today, as stupid as it sounds, it just makes life simpler.

Love, Anne