My daughter is obsessed with Snoopy. I woke up at 3:30 a.m. to hunt down Starbucks' new viral cup.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Charlotte Mandrier. It has been edited for length and clarity.

On Monday, September 14, I was cleaning up my inbox and deleting emails when I saw that Starbucks was collaborating with the Peanuts brand to sell merchandise inspired by "The Great Pumpkin."

I remembered last year when Starbucks released a small number of bear cups. My daughter, who is 9, had wanted one but hadn't managed to get hold of one. She was so disappointed.

She clearly hadn't known about the Snoopy cups that were going on sale, or I would have heard about it from her. She is obsessed with Peanuts, Snoopy, and "The Great Pumpkin."

As an autistic person, she has a special interest in Peanuts, specifically "The Great Pumpkin." She watches it all year long, even though it is a very fall movie. She listens to the music from the film's soundtrack. She was born in Santa Rosa, where the museum commemorating Charles Schulz — the cartoonist who created the Peanuts comic — is located. When she was little, she went to a camp at the museum and learned to ice skate at Snoopy's Home Ice next door. She even looks like Linus. She loves everything about this brand.

As it happened, her birthday is in two days. So when I saw that these limited-edition Snoopy cups and other merchandise celebrating the movie would be on sale, I told my husband I was going to try to get one for her.

I set my alarm for Tuesday morning at 3:30 a.m., quietly sneaking out of the house to arrive at our closest Starbucks in downtown Chevy Chase at 4 a.m., when it opens.

Walking six blocks to get there, I only saw one other woman on the street. It turned out she was going to the same Starbucks to wait in line, too.

When I got there, no one was in line yet, and I felt so relieved. I had imagined that there would already be a huge line, with people hoping to take all the stock to resell it later.

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