True fanhood is a beautiful thing. I witnessed it first hand the other day at Starbucks. After walking away from the experience, I realized in retrospect how cool it was.

After coming home from church on Sunday afternoon, I was frantically racing home to catch the rest of the Lakers’ Game 1 against the Jazz (had the ESPN Gamecast on my Blackberry the whole time but that’s never the same). Granted, I was a little tired that day so I wanted to get a refreshment to perk me up. I walk into the Starbucks near my house and ordered a lemonade iced green tea (deliciously refreshing btw, highly recommended).

Before finalizing my order my cashier picked up her cell phone and had exclaimed that the Lakers were up at the half. I looked straight at her and said, “Laker fan? Right on!!” and we exchanged a fairly complicated handshake, high-five, and bump (she followed my every move like a high-five pro). We then had a simple 10 second conversation while she was prepping my drink. It went something like this (as above),

“Laker fan? Right on!!”

“Oh yes, you know it.”

“I’m going to catch the game right now at home.”

“Haha okay, you enjoy it for me.”

“I sure will.”

I got my iced tea about 5 seconds later and it had on the cup written in big bold letters, “Go Lakers!” That totally made my day and the person who handed me my drink said, “Oh that’s from Lizzie.” I thanked Lizzie and she ordered me to save the cup and which I replied with an emphatic “of course!”

So here’s the profound part. I had a fun connection with a person I didn’t even know on a random Sunday afternoon. We exchanged high fives, I learned her name, and she gave me a personalized Starbucks drink all in a matter of seconds all because we both loved watching the same basketball team. Friendly Laker fans rock, especially ones that work at Starbucks (now I know two, you da bomb too Michelle).