Friday, May 6, 2011

Decaf

Decaf is apparently not in style. I went to this rally on the steps of the Oregon Capitol Building. It was great, featuring Jennifer Block, author of Pushed, as well as a number of midwives, homebirth fathers/mothers and even a 13 year old who gave a speech on the homebirth of her two younger siblings.

But anyway! Silly me, I forgot to bring quarters for city parking (blame that on my small-town living arrangements) and had to park four or five blocks away. When I returned to my car, I discovered I was in front of a coffee shop. It was the one I had visited when I was stranded one evening in Salem (the bus station was closed, and the train station was closed and I didn't know there was another train coming that I could have hopped on and paid my fare onboard.) There was a helpful boy there who used his smart phone to find a nearby hotel. I went in and asked for a decaf coffee. They were out of brewed decaf, and as I was thinking "Oh, that's ok, I'll just have a decaf espresso drink then" they told me they were actually out of decaf GRINDS as well, so no luck. I left and went to McDonald's. She said it would be 2 minutes and then I saw her brew the decaf. Funny :)

The last two times I visited the local McDonalds for decaf I've run into funny little issues. The first time, I was with my husband and ordered two small coffees, one decaf (but forgot to ask for cream in the decaf). When we got the coffee, they weren't marked! I really didn't want to drink caffeinated so I asked the girl at the counter if there was a way to tell, and she said "Oh! One of them is decaf." And then she realized there was really no way to tell and made another two coffees for us. The second time, I asked for decaf and the girl said it'd be a minute and I said that would be fine. So I waited, and waited, and waited. She even walked by the table once and I thought I caught her eye. So I went up after about 15 minutes (I was online, anyway) and asked about the coffee and a light went on in her head - "Oh, the coffee! I'm so sorry, I forgot!" And then I got my coffee. It wasn't so bad, though, because I was there to get online mainly, and the coffee was just my "tipping fee" for using the internet.

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