You Know You’re Old When…

You take your baby to the airport. You haven’t bought his ticket. Not only did you not provide funds for the ticket, you didn’t book the flight or even lend him your credit card to make the purchase. You didn’t make a little name tag, complete with address, to safety-pin to his backpack. You gave him ZERO cash. And, the next to last thing you said when dropping him off is, “Bring me coffee!”

I’ll get to the coffee in a sec. Most of you have seen Eric in the last few years and know he’s no baby. Not only will he be 20 in October—OMG, no more teenager!—he’s a big boy.

Here’s a photo taken by my sister-in-law, Sharen, shortly after I delivered my parents to the anniversary party. That’s me in the middle, wearing the brightly colored shirt. That’s my “baby” on the far left. The perspective makes him look only slightly bigger than he really is. I haven’t measured lately, but I am thinking he’s at least 6 feet. My nephew, Josh—the one wearing pink—is only 13. We grow them tall in this family!

As for the coffee comment… let me just start by saying I am no coffee connoisseur. I can’t tell you why I like a particular coffee. I also cannot describe the flavor in proper coffee terms, e.g., bold, bright, roasty, acrid, malty, etc. I just know what coffee I like.

I am very brand-loyal, too. Know what it is?

Seattle’s Best. That is, hands down, my favorite brand of coffee. How much do I like it? So much that I remember the very first time I tasted it. (Now, as much as I love a good Java Chip Frappuccino, I cannot tell you the first time I had one of Starbucks’ infamous frappuccinos.)

Anyway, I think it was 2000 when Hubby, Eric and I visited Washington state. Our first stop was Seattle. We didn’t spend a lot of time there, but we did go to the Space Needle. Oddly enough, I have a picture from that day. Hubby scanned it at some point and saved it for me. Eric was 10 at the time. We all look so young!

After the Space Needle and before hitting the Cascade Loop Scenic Highway, we stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast. It was there that I had my first taste of Seattle’s Best.

It wasn’t until recently that Seattle’s Best became available in grocery stores here on the East Coast. I was thrilled. I was even more thrilled when I got a taste of their Vanilla Bean and Hazelnut varieties.

Vanilla Bean is impossible to find locally. I only had it once, having purchased it on sale at Target after Christmas a couple of years ago. The Hazelnut, on the other hand, has been my coffee of choice for several years now. But it is getting harder and harder to find.

So, knowing Eric would be in Seattle, I told him to bring me some coffee.

Yes, I could but it online, but it ain’t cheap. If he can get it for less there, he’ll have to buy me multiple bags. At the very least, he’d better come home with some Vanilla Bean.

His trip to Seattle isn’t the only reason I have coffee on the brain. I just used the very last of my Hazelnut coffee. I’ll have to go to Food Lion today, the only local grocer I know who sells it, to see if I can get more. I hope I can.

Starting a work day, especially a day like today that I KNOW will be busy, just wouldn’t be the same without it.

Maybe I’ll get lucky and some very cool person from the Seattle’s Best company (which was acquired by Starbucks in 2003, by the way) will read my Blog and send me some freebies.

I could be the East Coast Ambassador for Seattle’s Best Coffee. Wouldn’t that be awesome?