Parking Spot or Coffee Pot?

Which is more important? Is it the cup of coffee to jumpstart your day? Or is it the parking spot at work, in a lot with too many cars and not enough spaces?

This morning, coffee won out.

You can tell those of us who spend the extra 15 minutes on the commute to work, stopping at Starbucks or whatever coffee place is closest to home. In a sea of dragging, weary, non-caffeinated cubicle monkeys, it’s easy to spot those of us with a spring in our step and a cardboard sleeve-encased cup of joe in our hands. But it is also us, the tardy coffee drinkers, so charming and affable at our desks, who become sharks as we pull into the parking lot; circling the rows, able to smell a freshly vacated space or the exhaust of a newly started car, backing up, from a mile away. It is also us, the java imbibers, who are forced to finally admit defeat and park, dejectedly across the street.

This morning, I thought I could resist… but in the end it was futile. As I parked my car and walked across the street, I reflected on the rich brown liquid warming my hands and energizing my step and thought to myself, “It was worth it.”

Coffee = 1. Parking Lot = 0.