No Drinks, Please

What is it with fast food places? Yes, I just typed “fast food.” I know I am not supposed to feed my kids, let alone myself that crap but.....when it is 5:30 and we are supposed to be at some school outdoor-picnic-movie thing at 6:00 and it is Friday, which means there is no food in the house, and we have 15 minutes to get 6 shoes on 6 feet, 3 sweaters over 3 heads, pack a bag with a blanket and haul 5 chairs out to the car...”fast food” has a very nice ring to it.

Besides, I feel a great motherly warmth when I suggest fast food to the kids and they go wild with excitement. They don't get it often so it'd deemed as a great treat. Besides, I don’t do the soda thing. And that, my friend, is the end of my guilt.

So there we were, my family and I, in our car ordering fast food. Then came the question, "What kind of drinks did you want with the kid's meals?"
"No drinks."
“Did you just say ‘no drinks?’” asks the clerk.
“That’s correct, no drinks, please.”
"But the meals come with drinks." says the alarmed clerk. She is probably thinking surely this man (my husband) wouldn't just give away the drinks he just paid for?
"Yes, I know, but no drinks please." he says politely and clearly.
Again, just to make sure there are no mistakes, he says “No drinks.”
“Oookaaayy,” says the clerk, shaking her head with her voice, “that will be $17.65. Please drive around to the next window (so I can get a better look at the weirdoes who don’t want drinks).
At the pick up window, a different person collects the money and starts to put our order together.
“What kind of drinks do you want with that?” he asks
“No drinks, please” I lean across my husband and say with a smile, knowing full well what is about to be said.
“But the kid’s meals come with drinks!” he says, as if I just told him to hold the burger and give me the bun.
“No dr….” I am interrupted
“Just give us the empty cups!” my husband yells exasperated.
That was the magic word, “cups.” Just give us the empty cups.
The clerks facial expression relaxed, his shoulders went down and he returned immediately to the routine he had been accustomed to.
With in a few minutes, we pulled away from the window with our food and our empty cups. All was, once again, right in the world.