The other day Kellie and I are sitting at Starbucks. "I can't do this, Josh," she says. She's in the middle of writing a 10 page paper and she's only on page 6.

"You know what might help," she says, getting a dazed look in her eyes. "Remember that one time in college when I was writing a paper and I got blocked with, like, two pages left? And I started drinking and blazed through it in 15 minutes."

"You're not seriously considering drinking," I say to her. "I am," she replies. Sigh.

"Well then why don't you go to the store and buy one of those tiny bottles of vodka so you can pour it in your coffee," I suggest. "You know, make it Russian coffee."

"That'd be creepy," she says, scrunching her nose up. I roll my eyes at her. "It's three in the afternoon and you're talking about drinking to help you write a paper. How can you be concerned about something being 'creepy'?" Kel nods, aknowledging the truth in my statement.

"Ooh!" she says, "We can put Starbucks coffee liquor in it too." I admit to her that I have have some sample bottles back at my apartment. She looks at me deviously. My look mirrors hers. "You can even put it in a travel mug, so it's easier to sneak back in," she says.

I think for a moment. "I'll only go back to my house and make this drink under one condition," I tell her. "That you'll let me blog about this."

You can probably guess her answer.

Ironically, when I got home I realized that the only travel coffee mug I had was one I had received as a promotional gift bartending, and it had the words "Rain Vodka" written on it. Fitting, no?

p.s. Kel finished the paper.

p.p.s. The recipe for the drink in question is actually 2 parts vodka, 2 parts Starbucks coffee liquor, half a can of Starbucks doubleshot and a dash of half & half, shaken with ice and strained into a travel coffee mug.