Reflections on a Smoothie Purchase.

I had one layover between Paris and Indianapolis yesterday -- in Atlanta. After a nine hour flight, I was a little sleepy and REALLY thirsty, so Freshens smoothies caught my attention. It was a huge disappointment. I had two options: regular or large. I thought of going for the large since I was REALLY thirsty, but thankfully asked to see the cup sizes first. The large size must have held at least a gallon. Ridiculous. So I went with the regular, which was also huge. I don't remember noticing the difference in portion sizes when I arrived in Spain, but I've definitely already noticed the difference now that I'm back.

At this point my mouth started watering, anticipating my delicious, fresh, fruity treat. It stopped watering when I saw the Freshens guy pick up one of the cups and start the smoothie by squirting in at least a cup of Crayola orange liquid called "Peach mix -- Sugar Added!" Then there were two little scoops of frozen fruit, some ice, probably some more sugar, and some water. He blended it all up, and it looked more natural than it did back when it was just "Peach mix -- Sugar Added!" so I hoped for the best and opened up my purse to pay. $5.53. I double checked the menu since the price was more than I thought it was to make sure he didn't accidentally give me the large size and then I remembered: Sales tax.

(In Spain, the tax is included in the price, so you pay the price that's listed. It's simpler that way, I think.)

So I pulled out the right amount of USD and noticed that the bills seemed longer than I remembered them. (Euros aren't as long and are shaped more like Monopoly money. Apparently I'd gotten accustomed to their shape in the course of 11 months. It's normal, I think.)

I went back to my gate, sat down, and had a hugely unsatisfying gulp of peach flavored sugar goop. It was so sweet that it didn't quench my thirst at all, and after I had finished a third of it, my stomach started grumbling about it. I was too stubborn to throw away the rest after paying airport prices for it, so I finished another third of it before I was too sugared-out to continue and gave up. Yuck.


Thankfully when I arrived in Indy, I came home to my mom, dog, a back porch with a hummingbird feeder, a drying machine, and a refrigerator full of good things like salsa, hummus with cilantro, tomatoes from the tomato plant growing in the front lawn, yogurt, cheddar cheese, Bumbleberry Jam from Paul's Michigan Fruit Market, wholegrain English muffins, peanut butter, sour cream, plums, tortillas, and Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce. MUCH better than Freshens.

It's good to be back.