3/20/10 - Bitter Coffee

I’m in Chicago at my ZB II workshop on the last two days before the equinox. The weather is heating up, the birds are singing and the frenetic activating wood energy is rising. Frustration with progress is abounding. I went in to Starbucks on my way to class and ordered my usual drink. The barista rang it up as another drink name. I told him that if he ran it up the other way it would be $0.10 cheaper. The more senior barista told him to still ring it up as the more expensive drink name because the Venti cup and the extra ice in my drink warrants the extra $0.10. I was too asleep to argue and my insides began fuming as the next guy after me ordered his drink and also requested a cup of ice water without being charged for it. I want my $0.10 damn it!

The next day was no better. Thinking to outsmart the guy I decided to alter my order and attempt another $0.10 subterfuge. To my dismay he still had me ran up at the higher price because he told me that the extra shot I asked in the grande would be more expensive by $0.25 than if he rang it up as the Venti drink the other way – yet still refusing to acknowledge the other way of ringing it up the way I had historically rang it up with every other starbucks in the nation. Exacerbated, I almost sliced the air with my credit card as I handed it to him, secretly hoping my brash response would indicate my level of displeasure. I surprised myself in my reaction on both days as it took me a good half hour to stop fuming over $0.10. By the last day I had resigned myself to ordering it the way he wanted to ring it up. The coffee was even more bitter than my attitude.

That same evening the people in the hotel room next to me decided to have a party. There was at least 6 twenty-somethings in the room laughing and banging against the walls at 11pm. After giving them some time to stay quiet as I lay there trying to muffle my ears with the pillow, I rang the concierge who said he’d put a stop to it.

Wood rising in me is very passive aggressive and I tend to explode internally with frustration. I was very happy to have a ZB session which focused a lot around the ribs around my Gallbladder and Liver back points which were abnormally store and painful. The energy of spring resumed unencumbered flow without frustration the following day as my compassion for the world returned once again.