Cream and Sugar, Please

People watching at the local coffeehouse can bring some strange rewards.
That is if you consider witnessing odd behavior rewarding, and I do.
As I was sipping my creamy columbian, in walked two tall, high school girls.
One walked up to the counter, the other veered off to the back of the shop where she grabbed an empty water cup. Then she walked back by me, up to the coffee island. I thought, man, she's going to help herself to a free cup of coffee. I wasn't even close.
First she filled it halfway with half n' half, next a few splashes of skim milk, then a few glugs of whole milk and then topped it up with soy milk. She wasn't helping herself to free coffee, she was just taking the cream (which I guess you couldn't consider stealing, they just leave it there for the taking). To add to my amazement she then grabbed a stack of sugar packets, whacked them back and forth before tearing the tops off and dumping them into her dairy concoction.
With her prize, she slid into a nearby booth that was still in my line of sight and took a huge gulp of her drink. Heaving a comforted sigh and leaving a proper milk mustache on her lip, she reached into her jacket pocket just as her friend joined her and obscured my view for a moment. Her friend had a "paid for" cup of coffee and a donut for dunking, but I could not concern myself with her, because I could not believe what my milk maiden was doing next.
Out of her pocket and now resting on the table was a plastic ziploc bag, half-full of colorful Kix cereal. I knew what it was because I too loved that cereal when I was a kid. However, I never enjoyed it in the fashion that she did. She opened up the bag and dumped in the rest of her milky blend. She then pulled a spoon out of her other pocket and proceeded to wolf it down, right out of the bag. When she was finished, her friend picked up her coffee, her donut was done, and they both got up to leave.
Her friend was already at the door while she made one more stop at the coffee station. She filled up her cup again with three kinds of milk and headed for the door gulping as she went, I guess to wash all the sugar down. She was now ready to start her day.
As I sat there just shaking my head, the coffee clerk was scratching her head as she noticed all the cream dispensers were empty. I could hear her thinking..."didn't I just fill these up?".

The Bare Tree

As the Sun dips below the rocky horizon,
the light slips from our lives for a while.

But always our memories continue to linger,
like the fragile limbs of the barren poplar,
patiently awaiting their rejuvenation.

Although seemingly rooted in a deep dark past,
the bare tree’s rings recall it’s strength
through warm and stormy weather.
Still branches reach for new life
amidst the golden fleeced sky.

For the bare tree knows…
the Sun will shine again.

Senior Mo Mints

Nathan Coleslaw wanted to start a business of his own.
He had many good ideas to choose from,
but everyone he knew kept asking him...
Why don't you make and sell your own coleslaw...
you could make a mint!
After much soul searching he finally acquiesced
and began making mints...
and is now founder/owner of the World Famous,
Nathan's Senior Mints.

Sunday Afternoon at The Hoosier

You gotta have some rice man.
I don’t know, let’s look in here.
Hey Mug, we got any rice in here?
I open one, you open one, we all open
one cabinet and say… I don’t see any rice.
Hey, what’s that...Uncle Ben’s…
Let’s See… No, that’s barley.
Barley looks a lot like rice say I,
Yeah, I think so too.
Open it up let’s have a look.
So what’s the rice for a wedding or something?
No man it’s for this dude who rode up on a Honda
with "Hardley" Davidson painted on his tank.
I want to pile the rice underneath it
and tell him he’s leaking fuel.
Not bad I think as the barley is sprinkled into my hand.
No that barley doesn’t look like rice at all,
it won’t work.
Bummed, they headed out of the kitchen
and back to the bar as I thought to myself….
I think I just experienced a Barley Davidson moment.