Jitterbug

The dance. Fred Astaire. Mikhail Baryshnikov. Paul Taylor. John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. And, moi - every workday morning.

C'mon. Admit it. You've done the coffee dance. No. Not some ridiculous ritual where you jump up and down, once you've had your daily a.m. intake of java. I'm talking about the actual one-two-cha-cha-cha, ball-change, turn, pivot that we all endure each morning as we perfect our morning cup of joe from the local Starbucks or Korean deli.

Personally, I always find myself at the Pret a Manger coffee counter, leaning delicately into a graceful half-bow as I grab my coffee top and cup sleeve, careful not to touch any other patrons. Then, I sashay over to the coffee urns themselves and deftly manuever my cup underneath both the medium-roast and dark-roast for a half-n-half robust treat. Then, I slide gently back into my original starting spot for the milk dosey-doh, as I grab the whole, my neighbor grabs the light cream and another patron makes for the skim.

We're graceful and fluid in our movements.

And, to think: It's before we've had our first caffeine fix of the morning. Perhaps, I should consider auditioning for ABT. Sure I'd make the cut, if I knew that there was a cup of steaming joe ready and waiting after my demi-pli