Starbucks

For caffeine junkies like me, sometimes you need a fix, and now Hurricane Sandy is coming between me and my daily cup of joe. All New York City Starbucks are closed today. If things stay as bad as everyone says, it looks like they'll be closed tomorrow, too.

Starbucks shuttered its doors in the Big Apple at 4 p.m. on Sunday to give workers time to get home on public transportation before the city pulled the plug on the subways and buses. I'm glad everyone made it home safely, but it would be nice to be able to get a Pumpkin Spiced Latte -- or even just a coffee of the day for heaven's sake -- during stressful times like these. Dunkin Donuts is closed too. What's a girl to do?

While I would never in a million years suggest that stores stay open during a storm like this -- which is barreling down on my hometown on the South Jersey shore -- it does say something about how we connect food and stress. How we find comfort in a warm, sweet, spicy latte when we're worried about whether Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop's house is going to still be there tomorrow.

Where I grew up, we had our share of hurricanes. Hurricane Gloria hit when I was a kid. The occasional nor'easter was a regular thing. And we had more "flood days" than "snow days" in high school, when the bridges into Ocean City were underwater, so those of us who lived on the mainland were safe and sound, and our barrier-island classmates were stranded.

As I write this, I'm trolling the Internet for pictures of home to see how bad the flooding is already with Sandy still several hours out. And of course I've got a cup of hot coffee next to me. Something warm to soothe me while I wait out the storm. If I had my druthers, though, I'd have a Starbucks Chai Latte. That one's my go-to comfort drink. (Back in my 20s, after a devastating breakup, I was even more devastated to learn the Starbucks near my office was out of chai. Unreasonable meltdown immediately followed.)

Do you have a go-to comfort drink when you're stressed out?


Image via Starbucks