Vitamin Water

I’ve just driven from Santa Barbara down the coast, along Highway 1, through Malibu, and have arrived at Santa Monica Pier. Home to a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant, the world-famous Muscle Beach, the historical end of Route 66, and a lovely boardwalk filled with amusements.

After spending about an hour out in the sun, I’m feeling kind of thirsty. I come across a Vitamin Water vending machine. (Vitamin Water: like regular water, but you feel less bad paying money for it.) It costs $3.50 for a bottle of Vitamin Water. This seems kind of expensive.

After about 3 minutes of pondering the situation, I realize that I don’t really care that it’s expensive. After traveling in very hot areas in Southeast Asia, I’m aggressively indifferent to overpaying for water and other non-alcoholic beverage while traveling. And besides, it’s three dollars. It’s not a big deal. I’m more worried about the possibility that I put my $3.50 in the machine and then the machine malfunctions. At that point, not only will I have wasted the $3.50, I would have to decide a second time whether I want to spend money on a Vitamin Water (presumably at a different machine), or on any of the other beverages which are also sold at the Santa Monica Pier.

I decide that spending 3 minutes thinking about buying a Vitamin Water was stupid enough and I shouldn’t think any longer, and put my $3.50 into the machine.

The machine malfunctions.

I get two Vitamin Waters out of the machine.

This is somewhat a problem, both because I don’t want to drink two of them, and because I don’t want to carry two of them. Also, despite my spending several minutes worrying about all the possible problems that might happen from buying a Vitamin Water, this possibility did not occur to me at all.

I quickly come to the conclusion that the best solution is to just leave the second Vitamin Water in the machine. Someone will almost certainly come up to the machine, see that there’s a Vitamin Water already there, and just take it. Problem solved.