peppermint

Do you ever have one of those mornings that just set your day off right?  I had one today.

It started this morning when my alarm went off at 5am.  Yuck.  I hit the snooze bar till 5:30 because I just. could. not. get. up.  But, eventually, I had to.  I got dressed and got ready and remembered that Billie Jo had given me a bottle of peppermint lotion for my birthday.  Peppermint is a good wake-up smell, so I put some on.   And then?  Then I put more on.  Because it smelled that good.  I remember thinking "how much of this can I put on before I start offending people with too strong of a peppermint smell?"  I mean, I probably coulda just bathed in it.

Anyway, suffices to say - it definitely helped me wake up and put me in a pretty good mood.

So, I go to leave the house and it's still pitch black outside and raining. Bummer.  I decide that I should stop for coffee.  Well, "should" isn't the right word - but I just thought it would help me wake up, y'know?  I've been stopping and Dunkin Donuts for coffee semi regularly for a while now.  But, on the way to DD, I had another thought.  It shot through my brain like a jolt of electricity.  You see, it's 11/16, which means that we're halfway through November, and THAT means that starbucks just *might* have their Christmas drinks out.....which would, of course, mean peppermint drinks.


Really y'all, I got pretty excited about this idea.  So, I did a drive by - and my heart skipped a beat when I saw that they'd put out the bright red menus and put snowflakes on the window.  Perfect.

This is where I'm going to put in a tanget about consumerism.  I know that starbucks isn't the best coffee on the planet.  I'm fully aware that it is overpriced.  I understand that I've been lassoed and hog tied by their pretty packaging, marketing, and their ability to somehow infiltrate my subconcious emotions tied to the holidays. I KNOW, okay?  But, I'm cool with that.  Moving on.

So it's actually been a while since I've been to the SB.  I'd forgotton how different it is from our local Dunkin' They're only a few yards away from each other.  But Starbuck's low lighting, acoustic music, holiday decor and warm colors were in such contrast the the florescent lit, busy, and crowded Dunkin (last time I was there, they were playing some hiphopish song about cheese sticks - it was odd).  Don't get me wrong, DD is good - but starbucks is preeeeetty.

Ok, back to the story, eh?  I'm so giddy when I order my white chocolate peppermint mocha (I actually giggled when she asked me "would you like whipped cream and chocolate shavings on that?") that I told her all about how my peppermint lotion had inspired me to see if they had their new drinks out.  She said that this was their first day putting them out and I was the first one to order it that morning.  *grin*

I take my sugary goodness back to the car - I'm sure I'm beaming.  I've pretty much decided that I just want to smell like a candy cane for the next 2 months.  I start driving and then I have another thought.  If Starbucks is selling christmas drinks - I wonder if the radio station is playing Christmas music??

Tanget 2:  Kyle is rather strict about our Christmas music listening.  None before Thanksgiving - he'd prefer none before December.  I, on the other hand, don't really get tired of it.  So, I sneak it when he's not around.

I was, again, beaming when I landed on XM4 to find Bing Crosby singing to me.

I didn't care that it was 6am, that I had a ton of work to do today, that it was raining.  I was just happy.

Next, the Little Drummer Boy started playing.  This is where I go all preggo on you.  It made me cry.  I mean, that song always makes me tear up - but today it started with the song tearing me up and then I just started thinking about how happy I was, and about the holidays, and about how blessed we all are, and I just kept thinking and got so overwhelmed with all the good around me that it made me shed a few tears.  But, happy tears.

I semi skipped to my office when I got to work.

So, now, here I am, well into the swing of the work day, taking a break to blog between meetings.  I just wanted to remember this morning.  Silly as it was.  It made me happy.

Also - today is Billie Jo's birthday!  So, happy birthday friend.  Thanks for the great morning. ;)

I hope everyone has a great day.