Susan’s Journal

The coolest thing in the world just happened to me.

A few days ago, Scott and I had been in a local Starbucks, and I saw these bears. They were Christmas Starbucks bears, with little knitted hats and mittens hanging from their wrists. They were half-off, for $7.99, but I decided not to get one.

For the next couple days, though, I couldn’t get them off my mind. Last night Scott said he was going to Starbucks, and I asked him if he could get one for me. he came home with a Valentine’s Bear–they’re currently $14.99–I guess he went to a different Starbucks, and they didn’t have any Christmas bears left.

So today at lunch, after I ate, I headed over to that same Starbucks. They had four of the bears left. I picked one out and waited in line for a minute or two before it was my turn. A lady had asked “Can I fix you a drink?” and I had told her no, I am just here for the bear. When I handed it to the man at the register, I told him, “I’m on a rescue mission.” He smiled.

Then something weird happened. When he scanned the barcode, it came up -$4586978… which to me meant he owed me over four million dollars. We both chuckled, then he asked the other lady who worked there what to do. She told him to try typing in the SKU, which didn’t work either. Then she walked over to someone else and asked them, then came back and whispered something into the man’s ear.

He said to me, “Let me put this into a bag for you…” then he put it in a bag… “And here’s your receipt…” he picked up a piece of paper and stuffed it in the bag… “And you have a nice day.” He smiled. I couldn’t believe it!

It was fate. I was meant to have this little soft bear. He’s awesome, and he was free! Now he gets to sit in the little brown paper bag in the nice toasty warm van, snoozing until I get off work.