medium coffee, with a shot of irish cream...
during my junior year of high school, i gained a level of freedom that only a newly minted "unrestricted" driver's license could afford. along with my friends, we would drive (omg) to different parts of west des moines, iowa and loiter around, as though the luxury of being at any place, any time with the call of a cell phone (new invention!) was something to be savored. with this independence came the ability to spend small amounts of money at these locales, including the small coffee stand at barnes & noble (a favorite)...
we would order our respective drinks at this stand: me, always something chocolatey, mocha-y. the friend that i respected most (how silly it seems now), always ordered his "medium coffee..." and after what seemed to be a most intentional pause "... with a shot of irish cream." "how sophisticated! how bourgeois!" i thought... here was a guy that didn't limit himself to the conventional black coffee, or the guadyness of an espresso drink... no, he was, by all accounts, a innovator in his own right, a Man amongst men. (did i just use three cliches in a sentence? yes, yes i did.)
i never ordered my coffee that way in from of him, fearing that he might suspect a copy-cat. though at separate occasions, i have given it a try. not too bad... love the smell, but the aftertaste is lacking.
i sit here with my medium coffee with a shot of irish cream in hand, ready to study up for my cardio final in 2 days, thinking about those times. when all those moments of conflict, of fun, mattered so much... and now, so little. i find myself sloping towards the practical... i envy when a cup of coffee and a hackey-sack could inspire so much euphoria