saying it out loud doesn't make it better.

Since Rosalba's returned to Colombia two weeks ago, I've been arriving at St. Rita's early for ESL with no Spanish lesson to take up the extra 45 minutes before class. I could take a later train into the city, but then I'd be late... so better early than that, I suppose.

It's a beautiful day today, so instead of taking the subway down Broad Street to ESL, I decided to kill the extra 45 minutes by walking to St. Rita's instead-- because the evening ESL class runs til 8:30, I don't get home until 10 and then rarely have energy much less desire to exercise, so this was a good compromise.

I stopped into a Starbucks close to the train station to get a coffee, and the friendly employees were expediently making their way down the long line, filling orders and ringing people up. They took my order, then moved onto the gentleman behind me, who asked for, "A reduced-fat turkey bacon breakfast sandwich, and a grande, mostly decaf with just a splash of regular Pike blend coffee."

Hang on a minute, I thought to myself.

Having worked at Barnes & Noble cafe, I've had the privilege/punishment to be aware of the caloric content of most pastries, drinks, and other goodies provided by Starbucks and its affiliates. And you don't have to be a genius to realize that the truth behind the frosting and chocolate chips and pumpkin spice and whipped cream is not pretty. In fact, it's really, really ugly. One chocolate chip cookie from Barnes & Noble cafe clocks in at about 490 calories. That's a lot of nutritionless points working very hard against one's waistline.

So this guy, whoever he was (and I'm sure he's very nice and had the best intentions) seemed to be under the impression that by stating that his breakfast sandwich was indeed the "reduced-fat" variety, he has won yet another battle against the fatty gods-- and wants everyone to know it. I'm quite sure of this fact because he repeated "reduced-fat turkey bacon breakfast sandwich" about five times in the six minutes it took me to get my coffee, pay, and leave the store. Before you berate me for being too hard on this guy who really just wanted to make sure he was getting the right sandwich... there are no other turkey bacon breakfast sandwiches at Starbucks. I'm actually just glad he didn't say "reduced-fat turkey bacon breakfast sandwich with cholesterol-free egg and reduced-fat white cheddar cheese," because, well, that is what the sandwich is actually called.

Maybe I should stop being so critical and instead have asked him to accompany me on my walk around the city. It probably would have been a more practical opportunity for him to improve his health than the repetition of his low-fat mantra. But instead, I grabbed my grande Pike Place blend coffee with a splash of non-fat milk in a travel mug to go, and left the store.



Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/iirraa/ / CC BY-NC 2.0