Have I ever told you about the first time I walked into a Starbucks??

It was a Tuesday evening in April.  It was pouring down rain and the sky felt like it might never see the light of day again.  I was walking downtown on my way to a meeting when a bus drove by and drenched me from head to toe.  It had been a really rough day to begin with…but this took everything over the top.

Right then and there…I decided I wasn’t taking another step and any direction.  I was done!

So, that’s what I did.  I stood there…in the pouring rain…my head just hanging down while the water ran down my back.

Eventually, I made a move.  But not in the direction that I thought I would.  Instead of continuing to my meeting…I looked for the first place where I could just sit by  myself.

It was a Starbucks…one block over.

I walked in…found my dripping self a seat…and just stayed for well over an hour.  I had a drink…wrote out some never ending thoughts…and wondered to myself…”how have I spent my entire life without ever coming here?!?!”  The amazing jazz music…the beautiful lighting…and coffee!

This is very similar to how I felt when I first met Meg and Ryan.  We found each other in line ordering coffee…we sat down to talk…instead, laughed for a full hour…and I wondered “how have I spent my entire life without ever knowing these two?!?!”

Seriously, there is just something about them.  Something that is so easy to talk to…something that is so easy to be around…something that makes me feel like we had been friends all along.

So, I spent the first twenty-five years of my life never knowing the joys of Starbucks…and the first thirty-five years of my life never knowing the awesomeness of Meg and Ryan…but if that teaches me anything…it’s that life only gets better from here…