Repeat after me.

I went to Starbucks on Saturday afternoon, to hang out with Rebecca while my 14-year-old daughter and her friend looked for Homecoming dresses. (More on that later; much later.) I placed my order for a grande, decaf, iced Americano, with room. The barista repeated it back to me, but in a slightly different order: "Decaf, grande, iced Americano, with room."

I said, "Okay." I never seem to get the order correct when relaying it to the barista. But, shouldn't the size come first? (Fighting to avoid the obvious pun here. Must...move...on....)

There.

The barista and I had a chuckle over the whole repetition thing. She said if she doesn't repeat the order, she can't get it right. I agreed that it was a good practice and pondered aloud the effectiveness of asking my kids to do the same when I deliver instructions to them. The barista laughed and said it probably wasn't a bad idea. I told her I might even blog about it, I liked it so much.

At some point, Rebecca showed up and placed her order, which I still don't understand except that part of it was inside-out, which I thought was possible only with sushi, socks and perhaps a few other things that aren't appropriate for this forum.

I strolled down to pick up my drink. Barista 2 presented it happily, "A decaf, grande caramel macchiato."

Huh? So much for repetition. And I had pinned so much hope on the concept, too.