I need a drink!

I can't tell you the number of times I have been driving down the road with my wife when suddenly she says to me "I need a Diet Coke". From my point of view, it always seems to come at the most inconvenient time. Either traffic is bad or we need to be getting somewhere else, or I just know they are going to be busy. That doesn't mean I don't stop, I love @mrsbozz after all and if this occasional selfless act makes her happy, then so be it.

It did get me thinking the other day about how much time we spend sitting in the McDonald's drive through waiting for said Diet Coke.

Wait you might be thinking, don't other places sell Diet Coke besides McDonald's? Yes, they certainly do, but for many, there is this widely held belief that McD's Diet Coke is better than your average Diet Coke. You can read about it here. That doesn't mean @mrsbozz will only drink Diet Coke from McD's. No, occasionally I will stop at a gas station and pick one up. Those are the rare treat because if they let you source your own fountain drink and they have Cherry Coke on tap I will get her a Diet Coke with a splash of Cherry Coke and that just makes her day.

She also drinks Diet Coke from the can and bottle as well, but her absolute favorite indulgence is from the McDonald's drive through.

My own personal misgivings about artificial sweeteners and what they are potentially doing to your body aside, she could have a much worse addiction, so I can't really complain. It's not about the money either. We both have good enough jobs that we can afford to spend a couple bucks each week for her to get a Diet Coke from the "Golden Arches".

I'm not kidding though when I say I feel like I spend a crazy amount of time per year in the McD's drive through. Let's say the average trip takes about ten minutes. Even if you only get a McDonald's Diet coke twice a month, that's still four hours per year that you are spending in the drive through.

That doesn't take into account the times you are sitting in line longer.

They try to trick you into thinking ordering through the app is quicker... it's really not. You still have to sit in line behind all the other cars who are taking their sweet time ordering everything off the menu before you can pull up to the speaker and give them your code. Then you sit in line longer until you get to the first window and wait for those other cars to spend five minutes digging through their center console looking for loose change to pay with, just so they can verify you are all set and ask you if you want a paper receipt.

Finally, you wait for that same car in front of you to get a million bags handed out to them and continue waiting as they check each one of them and point out some missing item they half mumbled to the attendant during their original order.

You laugh, but I'm not kidding this stuff happens all the time.

Finally, you pull up to that last window and you get your precious Diet Coke that it literally took them three seconds to prepare.

Or how about this scenario:

I can't tell you the number of times @mrsbozz and I have exited a busy expressway and navigated ourselves into a crowded McDonald's drive through only to be greeted with a sign saying their CO2 system is down so they can't offer fountain drinks. Either that, or we wait in line fifteen minutes only to find that their CO2 was spent and the drink is flat, or even worse, they pulled regular Coke instead of Diet Coke.

Like I said, I don't blame my wife, and I'd do it every time she asks in a heartbeat because that's what you do for people you love, but it's interesting to reflect on the time spent waiting for things like this that in the grand scheme of things probably don't really mean that much.

For sure, the act of getting it for her means a lot to her, but the actual Diet Coke itself? It's just an indulgence. Just a good ten minutes of pain for a fleeting moment of pleasure.