Off and on for the last few weeks, I’ve been walking to a coffee shop on the corner of 3rd and Main. It’s called The Coffee Break and it’s a fun, eclectic little place. I get, of course, a hot chocolate. A good one. For a fussy hot chocolate drinker, I’m pleased with the dark flavor.

What I’m really pleased with, though, is somewhere around the third visit, the man who owns the shop already knew what I was going to order. Today, he topped off the pleasure of knowing they already know your drink by giving me a free chocolate chip cookie.

At this point, I would go to battle for The Coffee Break. A free cookie is about all it takes to own me.

The library here in Bismarck, which I frequently walk to to check out my “Murder, She Wrote” DVDs, used to have a wonderful coffee shop inside. One of the baristas knew spot on what I was going to order. Back home, there’s a drive-through coffee shop in which the owners know my order as well.

“Skinny sugar-free mocha Big Train.”

You could say I’m stuck in a rut and unwilling to try new things, but I prefer to relish the feeling of being a regular, knowing that I know what I like. To go to a place and say “The usual!” to the person working the counter is a fine thing.

Here, I belong, for they know my beverage.

Laugh if you will, but belonging somewhere is no small feat.