Solidarity and Starbucks Coffee at 4:30 A.M.

Solidarity and Starbucks coffee at 4:30 am

11/28/2014

I know that I really should be motivated to wake early for Black Friday shopping with my family simply for the few dollars it can save me.  The reality is that it’s the time spent with my mother, and my sisters that I look forward to the most.  Solidarity and Starbucks coffee at 4:30 am.  What’s one without the other really?

My sister Rebecca, Mom and I headed out early this morning with a solid plan in place.  Hit Starbucks – then every store down the strip.  Once we finished, we would call my aunt Kathy and ask her to bring my kids and meet us for a nice breakfast together.

The morning started off dark and chilly. 45 degrees doesn’t really sound that cold, but it was surely cooler than my toasty bed. I still wrapped my scarf around my neck, and pulled my sweater around tight.  I focused less on my sister’s complaints of tiredness in the backseat and more on locating the butt warming switch for the passenger seat with its equally chilly leather seats.

Mom started our trip by asking Rebecca what holiday coffee she would like to try.  Mom ran off the descriptions as we were stopped at the intersection.  The green turn light for opposing traffic glowed through the driver’s side window filling the car with color.  Mom eased off the brake and the car began to move forward, the red light ahead insisting we stay stopped.

“Mom! Stop the car,” my sister cried out simultaneously.

She stopped the car and hollered back angrily, “What!?”

“Was the coffee not coming to us fast enough Mom?”  I could never resist an opportunity to tease. The day ahead was sure to have a number of opportunities.  I couldn’t wait.

The line at the Starbucks drive thru was a mere five cars deep, giving us a few extra minutes to decide if we needed to make any changes to our order.

Rebecca had decided on an iced peppermint mocha, and mom was trying to make sure she offered every option since my sister doesn’t often drink coffee. 

“You could have a Frappuccino or you could have a latte too,” she suggested.

“Oh, I just want one,” Rebecca answered.

The laughter curled up tight like a spring and burst out of me before I could stop it.  I’m fairly certain I laughed for a full minute before they caught on to the double entendre.

By breakfast, which had turned into lunchtime, we enjoyed several more great moments, and had spent far too much money. The day was not done yet.  Kathy took the kids home, and we let the shopping commence.

Whatever bitter arguments that stood between my sister and I in the last few weeks, remained unspoken and were all but forgotten in the hours we spent shopping for family members and kids.  We conspired to find the perfect gift for our mother whilst reviving our sibling telepathy in her presence.

Nearly two hours later, we headed home.  Tired, thirsty and not even close to shopped out.  Mom called my Aunt Kathy to let her know we were on our way. “Oh my holy shit Kathy,” she started, “you would not believe the crap we fit into this car!”  Rebecca and I burst into raucous laughter interrupting my mother’s phone call.  We tried to shush each other, which only fed into our bad behavior and poor taste in humor.

Mom scolded us of course and my sister and I shamefully giggled and mimicked the unexpected expletive in our mother’s exasperated tone.

We trailed armloads of bags into the house, and chased my nosy little boy back inside, trying to prevent any peeking.

We all concluded it was truly one of the best Black Friday shopping trips, and one of our best days together. Ever.