I said the S- word.

I think I've mentioned Higher Grounds before (the coffee shop whose internet I mooched before we got internet). The owner is what makes the coffee shop so great. Jeff knows his customer's names and at least pretends to be interested in their lives. He's from Iran and is a really neat guy. I like him so much that I'm afraid to ask if he's hiring at the risk of ruining our pseudo customer-patron relationship.

I dropped in for coffee with another Mines wife yesterday. I feel like a real regular walking up to the counter without my wallet since we have a credit. I was working there so much that we thought it would be a good idea to put twenty dollars on a tab and since we've got internet I rarely go anymore so our tab is lasting well into the semester.

I ordered a caramel macchiato and remembered that Brian said not all coffee shops make macchiatos like Starbucks. A real macchiato doesn't even have milk. So I asked Jeff if it was the Starbucks kind or the European kind. And you'd have thought I said the F- word. "Starbucks? I do not like Starbucks and I have only been there one time in my life and I will never go back. I would not know if it is like Starbucks."

I started mentally backpedaling. I had just deeply offended Jeff. It was like something out of a movie. You know how movies make foreigners look when they get mad? Like they will have some kind of life-long vendetta against you. "Uhh, I didn't mean I wanted it to be like Starbucks Jeff. What I ... uh ... meant was that Brian told me that there are two kinds and sometimes you have to ask which kind. That's just the only way I knew how to explain it."

I think Jeff could tell I was flustered and sorry so he changed his tone and his expression and went on telling me about how he goes to coffee conventions and knows how Starbucks roasts their beans. They burn them he tells me. And says it's very bad for your health. I think he even said it will give you cancer.

I'm not sure about all that but I'm easily swayed about health related things so I'm going to do some research. And never, never say the S- word in Higher Grounds again.