I am on vacation this week and it has been a time of self discovery for me. We are staying in a fairly snazzy hotel that is rather well known. Yesterday, we got up and I discovered that there was no coffee maker in the room. Irritated at this appalling customer service oversight I called the front desk to suggest they bring one promptly, if not sooner. "We do not offer coffee makers in our guest rooms", was the reply. Hmmm...


"Well, is there a place in the lobby where I can get a cup of coffee?" No. If I want coffee I should call room service. Having experienced this thinly disguised form of robbery with a pizza the night before, I declined this service. There is a Starbucks on every corner, I'm thinking, I'll walk on over. There is not a Starbucks on every corner in this town. Hailing a cab for what will surely be a short trip, I hop in and tell the driver my intended destination. He pauses, thinking over the geography of the town, having trouble mentally locating such a rare place of business. Meter running, of course. Rolling the cab into the traffic, he continues to cogitate unsuccessfully.


This is not going well. Not only am I going without (this is the United States of America! We don't do 'without') but someone told me, an alcoholic, "No", which is never a good thing. Just because I'm in the recovery program ETA doesn't give people the right to tell me "No." On top of all this, I got into a cab with the only cab driver in the entire universe who doesn't know the city where he lives and works. Lucky me. Perhaps I should not play the slot machines located in the hotel lobby (where the coffee used to be, no doubt). Obviously, I am spending all the luck I have been allotted for the day just trying to get a basic human need met.


Five blocks later, I spot a coffee house and tell Rand McNally to let me out at the corner. He pulls over and a cacophony of horns strike up a catchy little orchestration to accompany my exiting the cab. The fare for this excursion was eight, EIGHT bucks! I hurry in and order a cup of caffeine to calm myself. Sigh. I spend a bit of time at a table outside, enjoying the warm weather and chatting with the old HP. I got the feeling He was upset about the whole thing, too, because He said not one word of censure to me. I mentioned how grateful I was for coffee, the ability to pay for it and the fact that I can afford EIGHT DOLLAR cab fares. This gratitude was sincere.


Even though I can afford a cab ride, I decide to walk back to the hotel. A little exercise will help me get any residual negativity out of me. During my stroll, I come upon a CVS pharmacy. I stop in and purchase a small coffee pot and the necessary supplies to go along. Cost? Thirty bucks. I'll be here for five days. It was a brilliant economic move. Who says alcoholics don't know how to manage money?


Have a good and sober day.