Life lessons taught to me by a coffee cup

So, this morning as I'm preparing to walk into the office with a bucket of bagels, a bag with cream cheese, an overflowing file folder, a big bottle of water and a cup of coffee, I think to myself, "wow, I'm pretty loaded down. Maybe I should make two trips." Of course, laziness gets the better of me, and I load up to make one trip. Everything goes fine until I get to the office front door, which of course requires me to swipe my badge, which gives me about 10 seconds to then more over and pull on the door to open it. All the while, a colleague is coming up behind me, and I can see that she too has a full load. Naturally, trying to be a nice guy, I hurry up so that I can hold the door open for her.

It's at this point that my full Venti cup of Starbucks' best tumbles out of my hands and explodes on the concrete directly in front of the door. With my colleague watching. At 8 AM, right as people are really starting to come in.

Not wanting to make a scene, I decide I will grab a bucket, fill it with water and just rinse away my coffee puddle of failure into the flower bed next to the door. An angel of salvation appears in the form of a friend/coworker, who helps me get a bucket (I think it was actually a container of éclairs from Costco in it's former life) and fill it with water. Feeling like I will soon put this incident behind me, I rush out the front door and proceed to dash away the coffee with clean, refreshing, wash away the shame water.

Well, the doors to our building are the glass kind that don't quite make full contact with the bottom of the ground. Apparently, what this means is that when you dump out a bucket of water on the ground right by the doors, apparently some of that water, and the coffee which it is now mixed with, runs into the office itself. Stupefied, I come to the realization that I've now brought my problem into the sanctuary of the office. No bed of petunias will now save my hide.

My angel of salvation again comes to the rescue, with a four inch thick stack of Papa John's napkins (thank G-d for pizza delivery) that we promptly use to sop up the mess and dispose of before more problems are created. Meanwhile, another angel (are there such things as Republican former Marine angels?) agrees to bring me a fresh cup back from his trip to get himself a refill.

Mind you, all this has occurred before I've even gotten to my desk, had any breakfast or even a sip of coffee (see paragraph two above). However, on reflection, I've decided to try to make something positive out of this incident. As such, I want to share with all of you the four life lessons I've learned this morning from a cup of coffee:

#1: when you feel you're juggling too many things, sometimes it's best to slow down and handle just a few things at a time

#2: before you try to "fix" something, stop and think it through, or else you may find yourself making more of a mess

#3: take a moment to laugh at your minor misfortunes, and enjoy the company of friends who are there to help

#4: don't sweat the small stuff, you can always get another cup of coffee