This is the part I despise about being sick. I'm not feeling too badly, except for a mild cough, so I went to work. Around 11:30 I needed to make a bank deposit and after that I detoured by the Starbucks next door to the bank for a cafe vanilla frappuccino and a cookie (good nutrition is important when one has been ill). The following exchange ensues:

Lady: That'll be $4.12.
[I hand over four dollars and wait.]
Lady: Do you have twelve cents?
Me: [interpreting this to mean she'd rather not hand over a pound of coinage in change] I'll check. [I find that I have seven pennies.] No, I don't.

I stand there, waiting for my change.
She stands there, waiting for another buck.

Lady: I need twelve cents.
Me: I don't have it.

We wait. We look at each other awhile. We are trying to be patient but each of us wonder why the other isn't doing anything. I'm sure she has no clue what MY problem is because she's seen a sheaf of bills in my wallet and watched me drop a buck into her tip jar, so she knows I'm not caught short, but she doesn't realise what's wrong, either. Finally, the penny drops - figuratively speaking, of course, and she says:

Lady: It's twelve MORE cents.
Me: [the lightbulb flickers!] Oh - I thought I gave you enough and you just hoped I had exact change.
Lady: You gave me four ones.
Me: [utterly humiliated, an accountant who can't add] I'm so sorry, here. [hands over another $1.]
Lady: It's probably my fault, didn't speak loudly enough.

Which was nice of her to say, considering that the total was also right in front of me in neon blue. I'm so humiliated - how stupid does she think I am? "Really stupid" would be the logical conclusion...that's the worst part of being sick, for me. I feel okay, I think I'm okay, and then I do something boneheaded and discover that my remaining brain cells are not on speaking terms with each other. GAH!

I can just imagine the conversation the next time I want a frappuccino. I'll walk in and she'll be saying to the other Starbucks baristas, "Oh, no, you take this one! It's that lady that can't count to five dollars!" and all the other Starbucks baristas will be, like, "No?!? Her?!? I heard she's like an accountant or something, she's a VP OF FINANCE!" and they'll all have a big laugh about how jokes about executives are so true because I can't even figure out that $4.12 means I have to hand over an amount greater than (>) or equal to (=) $4.12! GAH!

I can never go into that Starbucks again. Fortunately for me, there's one on the ground floor of my building.