QotD

Is quality worth the price?

I'm a coffee drinker. Actually, i'm a coffee requirer. I have an addiction to caffeine that requires some sort of caffeine intake during the day to keep the headaches at bay. Luckily, i like the taste of coffee as well, so it makes the morning drinky worthwhile. My morning routine wakes me, showers me, drives me to the office where i partake in my first cup of coffee and fuck off for the first half of the day til my boss catches on. Until recently, the company i work for had a ban on anything extraneous in office locations, like coffee machines, large roomy desks, plants and bathrooms. So, for the last two years, i've been bringing my coffee from home. i've got a good coffee maker that will have it brewed and ready for me when i'm walking out the door. About six months ago, they installed coffee machines in the break rooms. These aren't fresh brew coffee machines, but a vending style coffee dispenser, complete with little paper cups, sound bytes of coffee beans being ground and then an indescribable thumping and grinding sound that i suppose is the steaming hot water being pressed through the freshly ground beans. And wonderfully so, out pops the worst fucking cup of ass juice that i've ever been priveledged to put to my lips. even wors than those wankers at the tom thumb starbucks. i still continued to bring coffee from home, but the machine made for a nice afternoon gag fest if you were snoring to loudly during your conference calls. be not mistaken, this stuff made me cry. not the 'princess diaries' or 'i just lost my virginity' or 'that custom paint job on your chopper is gorgeous' crying. it's more like a 'bill and ted' or 'i just lost my virginity . . . anally' or 'i just laid down my chopper with the custom paint job' crying.

About a month ago, an email was sent out to tell us that they will be putting the normal coffee machines back in the break rooms. the machines that you actually put the grounds in the filters and watch brew right there. like we all have at home. great! except, the coffee still sucks. imagine taking the coffee grounds that have been sitting in the filter of your coffee machine for a week and then just sucking on them. sucking on week old coffee grounds. this stuff is almost that good.

i think you understand my point here.
i'm not a starbucks fan (unless i'm in dire need of coffee), but i do appreciate a good, simple cup of well brewed, nice tasting coffee. there is a local bagel place near the office that brews their own coffees and it is great. hearty, flavorful and consistent. so i ask, is me paying a buck fourty nine worth the quality as compared to the free monkey snot they serve here? and i know, i could just continue to brew my own and bring it with me, but that scenario won't fit my arguement here, so pretend you just never heard that i own a coffee maker.

I made a joke once about my not actually reaching a mature and complete adulthood until i had purchased at least one piece of furniture from a store that didn't require me to build it myself. i have an affinity for buying tables and desks and hutches from places like target or walmart because it's cheaper to pay the $150 and build it myself than to spend $850 at a crate and barrel or golden corral or wherever you buy expensive furniture (or just permanently borrow it from hooters like buddies of mine do . . .). i'm sure those snotty little housewives in highland park are looking down their newly sculptured noses through their Armani sunglasses at me and scoffing at my mediocrity, but honestly, i kinda like that kind of stuff. i like to spend the time building it and it's cheap and reliable, most of the time. It gives me a sense of acomplishment.

so again, is it worth the price? Is my two weeks in the pokey for petty theft worth the six bar stools and a cash register from hooters or should i just pay the five hunnet bucks and get the same thing at pottery barn?