Today I am thankful for the little green plastic stopper in my Starbucks cup.

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11.1.19

Getting out of bed was hard this morning. Way hard. I was tired. It was early. I was cold. And it was the day after Halloween -- which, for my non-educator friends out there, is undoubtedly one of the more difficult teaching days of the school year. I hit snooze about 5 times, even though I knew my classroom was a disaster, I had copies to make before school, and I had to stop at the grocery store on the way to work to pick up popsicles for a classroom reward. When I finally convinced myself to leave the warmth of my snuggly bed, it was only with the promise of a latte to reward myself for being an adult and going to work.

I made a quick dash into Fry's on the way to school to pick up the popsicles, a few items for the school food drive, and my latte. The barista handed it to me without a stopper. Not a big deal, right? The stopper is really unnecessary most of the time. However, I had a big cup of water in the car that I was planning to make myself drink before diving into the latte. Drinking a big glass of water first was going to make me feel better about having to bribe myself with fancy coffee in order to make it to work. So, I asked for a stopper in hopes that it would help keep my drink hot while I drank the responsible, boring water. The barista kindly obliged and I was on my merry way.

About 10 minutes later I found myself in my school's parking lot faced with the 'one trip or two?' dilemma as I surveyed the large load of items that I needed to carry in from my car. As I was already running much later than intended, I clearly opted for one trip. I'm sure I was a sight for sore eyes as I fumbled to open the gate with several bags of groceries, my purse, my lunch bag, my laptop bag, my latte and the large cup of water (still undrunk). I did it though, cuz once you commit to making it in one trip, there is no looking back.

I made it all the way to my classroom before I fell. I was literally 2 steps from the door. Then the slow motion started -- you know, that moment when you know you're falling and you can see that it's not going to end well, but there's not a darn thing you can do about it. It was epic. I dropped it all. The popsicles. My lunch. The canned corn for the food drive. My beverages. And my pride.

The school secretary was the only witness. She ran over and made sure I was okay. If I was a sight for sore eyes before, I clearly was the captain of the Hot Mess Express now. There I was, on my hands and knees on the cement, with what seemed like half my earthly possessions strewn all around me.

I was completely fine. It took me a minute or two to convince the secretary of that, but I truly was. I hopped back up, dusted myself off, and then ducked into my classroom to avoid any more embarrassment. I had a quick 'woe is me' moment in the privacy of my classroom and briefly contemplated running to my car and driving back home to my snuggly warm bed to declare the day a total fail. Instead, though, I took a deep breath and went back into the hall to pick up all my stuff.

And here's where the day turned around. My latte survived. The whole darn thing. The cup had miraculously landed right side up and there were but a few little drops that had spilled out. Thank you, little green plastic stopper in my Starbucks cup -- you saved my coffee, and you saved my day. It was, by the way, the best damn cup of coffee I've ever had.

So today, the first day of November, I am thankful for:

• a warm bed

• - a job to go to

• - a kind, caring secretary

• - not getting hurt

• - and the little green plastic stopper in my Starbucks cup.