Rare is the odyssey that begins with a credit card declination. Rarer still is the shabby beginning we experienced at the closest thing to a starting line that is readily conceivable in the mind for our journey, this day, 2013 year of our lord.
It was not early, we were not in any way overconfident or with excessive zeal of any kind, but we were caught flat footed in one of the most deplorable and embarrassing schemes ever to begin an odyssey. I will just get right to it. My primary debit card was declined. At Auntie Anne's. For the an $8 purchase of pretzels. To make matters even more proletariat, we had not only declined the upsell additions of nacho cheese and honey mustard condiments, but demanded the free Heinz Mustard packet before our journey came to an unflattering end just as it began. We looked like a pair of bozo pretzel amateurs. Our North African pretzel attendant sneered at us from behind her flour specked smock.