Ice Cream Solo Run

Around 6 PM, after a full day of sitting in front of the box… I found myself craving sweets. Which is weird, because I don’t have a big sweet tooth at all. But for some reason, I really wanted a milkshake. And so, I set off down the street to a local place up North Avenue. Cold Stone Creamery is one of those fancy shmancy chains that makes ice cream daily, on site, and they do some sort of mixing work on marble slabs.

I had never been into one before, and realized that most of their menu items were pretty custom. A lot of the ice creams had names like Mud Pie Mojo or Banana Split Decision. Everything was pretty elaborate, and had tons of extra ingredients (sprinkles, candy, fruit, etc).

And really, all I was looking for was a vanilla milkshake.

The place was packed and, despite having three people behind the counter… everything was slow as hell. But, since I’ve never been here before, maybe the speed is par for the course, since everything is all hand-made. I waited in line for what felt like a solid 10-15 minutes though.

The whole time, I was incredible self-conscious. Here’s what I’ve determined – going to an ice cream store alone is akin to going to a restaurant or movie by yourself. It’s fine, but you really feel aware of yourself. Looking around me, I saw groups of friends, families, or couples. As far as I could tell, I was the only person in the store “on my own.”

It felt as though every one else was there celebrating something or getting ice cream as part of some special occasion, and me being there to satisfy some jones for a milkshake. It was an odd vibe that I got, but faded a bit as I got to the end of the line.

At any rate, here’s something I realized: I paid about $4.28 for my milkshake (almost a $5 shake). And I gotta say… it was a pretty damn good milkshake.