How well do you know me? (IV)
This morning I had the oil changed in my car. As I was paying the cashier, it was the usual shuffle of papers to sign while minding my credit card, backpack, keys, coffee mug. I had also purchased a new set of very expensive wiper blades (everything VW is expensive) and I was consciously trying to keep from forgetting them. In the end, of course, I walked out of the car dealership leaving something behind. It wasn't the wiper blades, though. It was my travel coffee mug. I didn't realize it until I was parked at work. There was the sudden sneeze-like "oh shit" reflex reaction. This was my favorite travel mug. Stainless steel. Well-insulated. Nice cylindrical shape that fit snugly in the car's cup holder. And most importantly, it didn't leak. The cap screwed on precisely making a rubber seal noise like a squeegee on glass that I found most reassuring, especially since I have known the horrors of travel mugs that dribble coffee onto nice clean shirts (usually on days with important meetings). It is also worth noting that this was a $15 travel mug, not one of the cheapy disposable mugs. So there you have it. The moment of realization. The extent of the loss. One final point: the car dealership was 8 miles away. So, did I:
A) turn the car right around and drive back to the dealership to pick up the mug?
B) decide, after a careful cost-benefit analysis, that my time was worth too much to go back (also there was the seventy-five cents in tolls to pay), choosing instead to suck up the fact that I was going to have to buy myself a new mug?
C) call up the car dealership and ask them to ship it back to me, playing the "given how much I spend in this place it's the least you can do" card?
D) call up the dealership and ask them to hold on to the mug until I can get over there to pick it up, knowing full well that the next time will be in three months for my next oil change, and by then the mug will be a toxic waste site inside?
E) come to the brilliant realization that I could buy Wifey a new travel mug for Christmas, which I could then borrow on a long-term basis?
F) weasel out of the matter completely in a controversial manner that some would find objectionable but none surprising – if they knew me.
9:08:02 PM 
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