love, backfired

Every. last. drop. of a 16-oz caramel latte arrived in a nice foamy mess on my car floor early last week.

They say what you love the most can also, in the end, hurt you the most...

and this, my friends, is true.

Let me take you back so you can fully understand this particularly unfortunate coffee diary entry.

It was Wednesday. First thing in the morning, maybe around 6:50 am.

Arrived at the stupid dunkin donuts that happens to be the only coffee shop around my work.

I thought to myself, "treat yo self. It's Wednesday."

So, I ordered a medium caramel latte,

hot,

with skim milk.

I always have to repeat the "hot" part in the summer time because I get crazed looks.

So...in my brand new car's upholders it went. And the drive was fine.

Until I arrived at work and tried to single-handedly lug my heavy schoolbag out of the car.

I have done this literally every day of the year, so why should it be a problem today?

I tugged it over the center console, right above the cupholders, and, 

S

PILL.

a pretty decent amt. all over the cupholders.

Grunt, sigh, complain. Okay, wipe it up. For safe keeping put the coffee elsewhere. 

on top of the center console.

and this, my friends, is when the catastrophe happened. cue the slow-mo:

The entire, ENTIRE, $3.68 latte (which is pretty much all milk, people) 

met the pristine black carpet of my mazda. 

every single last droplet, of hot hot milk, and sticky caramel.

I immediately cursed and tried to wiped up the sloppy mess.

But to no avail, it didn't clean up quick enough. The damage had been done.

 Of course it was an 80 degree, humid and muggy day so the milk set in and obviously

 festered into a stinky, bacterial mess (ok, gross).

I wasn't able to scrub it out via industrial power-grade vacuum until later in the day.

But as soon as I did, I immediately felt relieved. I cursed every little ounce of latte as I gleefully sucked it up in that gas station vacuum.

My worries vanished.

Until maybe 2 days later. I got in my car, and it STUNK.

Why three days later? I don't know.

It was unbearable. Even after hosing down the mats and sucking up the gunk...it smelled rancid.

And this is all in my new car!!! GAH!

So another trip to the vacuum, plus a hot water rinse, plus baking soda...

and the results are TBA.

my love for lattes has backfired. sigh. note to self: make sure that lid is on TIGHT.