The Tea Story

To understand "The Tea Story" you have to know 2 things.

1) There are exactly 2 restaurants at OSU-Tusla and you can't charge anything to your bursar and so that's a strange concept in itself (your bursar is like your own bank account at OSU-Stillwater and you can charge just about EVERYTHING to it. It's a great system... until you get your bill). One of the restaurants is a Java Daves and you can get crappy coffee and fried food or you can go to Subway. The Subway here is pretty good and they have decent tea.

2) I'm not much of a "rule" follower. It's not that I like to break the rules and seek being in trouble, I just have pretty good intuition about which rules you should and perhaps should not follow, or at least tweak a little to suit your needs. I've always been this way, mostly because I rarely know what the rules are in the first place because I never read directions and don't always listen very well. I also have a pretty good sense of humor so I am generally willing to accept the consequences if I do get caught breaking a rule that I decided was only consequential to my pride.

So now that you know these things, here's the "Tea Story"

For my New Years Resolution, along with the normal stuff like be generous, be healthy yada yada, my headliner was to give up aspartame (well at least in the things that I was aware that had aspartame, I've been a little naive). So goodbye Diet Coke. If I'm going to have a pop, I'm going to have to drink a real one and suffer the calories, which I am generally not willing to do because when I'm on the tread mill and I've run a mile and a half and I am worn out I just don't think the Pepsi was worth it. This is one resolution that I can proudly say I have stuck to (even though Monica made me aware that my gum had aspartame in it, so I had to switch brands. Minor set back). I feel great and have zero desire to drink Diet Coke any more.

However, I need a little caffeine to get me through the day. Not to complain, but spending 14 hours a day at the school for work and THEN school wears on a person. By Wednesday a Starbucks run is a must.

Almost daily, I go down to the Subway and buy my tea for $1.51 and to justify that $1.51 (the actual cost of a glass of tea is probably about 3 cents, and I am being generous) and get through the day I usually go down once or twice and get a refill. On one of my trips, Monica went with me to get one of these said refills and she asks "Can you get a refill?" and I respond "Well, I don't know, but I do every day. I feel that if I were to eat my lunch in the actual restaurant and get a refill it would be allowed, so why can't I come down from my office? Besides, they're really nice here and no one has ever said anything. " At this point I have probably gotten about 25 refills and never had a problem. Well Monica is NOT a rule breaker. I mean NOT NOT NOT. It's just not her style. I think it's funny because I would totally be willing to suffer the consequences of the little rules that she refuses to break, but she's a mom and a teacher and a therapist, so maybe they have like a "Right and Wrong 101" class that they make people go through that meet those criteria. I, would probably skip that class because I completely forgot about it. But whatever, to each her own.

Last week I went and got a tea, then later got my refill and came back to my office. 15 minutes later, Monica comes in and says, "Well, I pulled a Shanna, and GUESS WHAT". I just look at her because I can only imagine what she's going to say because I am sure that by this point I have given her tons of bad advice on a variety of topics. She says "I went down to subway, had my lunch, left for LESS THAN AN HOUR, came back and got a refill and was talking on my phone and a lady behind the counter was yelling 'Ma'am! Ma'am!' and I ignored her because she couldn't be talking to me, then she continued 'Ma'am! Ma'am! You need to pay for that refill! I just looked around innocently, put my friend on hold, and told the woman, I was just here, I am just getting a refill! Then the woman continues 'Well, you can do it this time, but you need to pay for it next time. Once you leave this restaurant, you cannot get a refill!'" Monica said she was pretty embarrassed and there were several people in the restaurant.
I wanted to fall out of my chair. Mere minutes ago I had done the exact same thing and no one said a word. I really did feel bad. I was so confident that this was fine, that she, Monica the rule follower, even gave it a whirl and it bit her in the butt at her first try. I am smiling writing this because it's hilarious.

Moral of the story: Don't do as I do. Don't do as I say do. Do your own thing, because I am a bad influence.

I was reminded of this story because I've been avoiding Subway for a week because I can't justify $1.51 for one glass of tea, so I went down, bought a tea this morning and asked "Hey, can I come down here at lunch and get a refill?" and the guy behind the counter replied "Yeah."

Posted in: Funny Stories