Mmmmm. Big drink.

Ok, so we all know there's something fairly wrong with me, and let me just prove it by telling you about one of my great joys in life. It is, wait for it....great big cups of soda. The kind you get from the gas station. Self serve, just the right amount of ice, big long straw. Mmmmm. Who knows why! Maybe it's because my mum would never let us have Big Gulps when we were kids. Maybe there's some deep psychological thing about waiting to drink deeply from the well of life (yeah, I wish it were something impressive and deep like that!) All I know it that it started the summer Jack was born, in Texas. Right around teh corner from us there was a Sonic, and the other great joy in my life (the first and foremost being Jack, of course) was to drive through and get a diet Cherry Limeade. Ahhhh. Icy, tangy, delicious. No calories!! 89 cents or something. The perfect indulgence! And the love has been with me ever since. I get the same gleam in my eye, I think, as I approach the self-serve station at Speedway as a heroin addict does approaching his stash. It's really not normal.

This weekend begins a new chapter in the love story. Why? Because now I have a PERMANENT plastic cup from Speedway. Complete with even cheaper refills! Ah, the joys of life. This thing is huge, insulated, holds the promise of sodas to come, even when simply filled with tap water from my kitchen. As I sit here, about to type up the latest installment of the blog, sweating through the first humid night of the year, I hear it beckoning to me from beside the sink in the kitchen.