Hmmmmmm. . .
Yesterday I bought a 20 oz. bottle of Coke at a gas station. It cost 75 cents. Today I bought the same Coke at the sandwich shop around the corner. It cost $1.40. Same Coke, almost twice as much. Yet I don't feel like I've enjoyed it twice as much as I enjoyed the cheaper Coke yesterday.

Today I went to the post office. Behind me, a woman in an older model BMW was very intently tailgate-ing me. She swerved around me as though the rear of her car was on fire and she was hurredly trying to escape it by driving fast and swerving in and out of cars to get to her destination. After all of her swerving and running people over, it turns out she was headed to the post office, too. She parked in a special BMW-away-from-other-cars spot, while I parked in the first spot I came to. I calmly walked into the post office, ahead of her, as she rushed out of her car and walked the long distance from her car to the post office. I stood in line a couple of people ahead of her, yet close enough to hear her ask the guy behind me to take a key off of her key ring so that she wouldn't break a nail doing it herself. I made it through the line and back out to my Jeep before she came out of the post office. I started my Jeep as she got back in her BMW, and I headed out of the parking lot, not rushing, but easily able to get right in front of her as she drove up behind me. All that hurrying in her BMW-esque uppity-ness, yet my Jeep and I had her beat the whole time.

What's the moral of the story? I don't know.

But I do know that I don't need to buy an expensive Coke, or to hurry around in an expensive car to enjoy my caffeine fix of the day or to get where I'm going.

C.T.