As I was walking this morning with Anh, we were in idle chit-chat and enjoying being together and outdoors. It was a lovely morning with the air still crisp before the day’s heat set in. We crested the small hill by our house and looked back at the little nestled rows of track homes built into this little pocket formed by a few low ridge lines. It was the picture-perfect moment of suburbia. As we continued our walk and casual conversation, my mind wandered a bit here and there with random thoughts about the destinations in my life.

In this case, it was Starbucks.

It is a mile and a half walk to the closest place where I can get a cup of Nitro Cold Brew coffee. I love the velvet creaminess of a nitro coffee and take it as an upside that I drink it black. It does not need to be a thousand calories to be able to get it down. It was like any other location with the busy baristas working the machines and the line of people waiting to put in the orders. Normal, as normal can be, until it was not.

There is no glory in climbing a mountain of all you want to do is to get to the top.

Karyn Kusama

They have been having “challenges” with the nitro equipment. We watched as three team members tried to fix the contraptions nestled under the cabinet. This got moved in-and-out, up-and-down, before a frustrated comment and the person was swapped out. We watched this go on for a good half hour with more cups of flat cold brew going down the drain. What a loss of coffee as I thought of all those little beans being ground up for nothing. I can only imagine them saying, ‘well, this sucks.’

At this point, all was lost, and I threw in the towel and politely asked for a refund. The team kindly obliged my request and put an upside-down cup on the Nitro Cold Brew spigot. It looked sad there on the counter as we headed for the door.

A journey up a mountain, albeit tiny, did not achieve my goal of a cup of coffee. This put me in a bit of a funk during our walk home. I had to be reminded that the journey was more important than a cup of coffee. It was time well spent with someone I care about, it was good for my health, and it was a great morning. It is a case in point about not being tied and disappointed by expectations we put on things out of our control.  After all, I will be back tomorrow on the same walk to the same destination.