Coffee Break

I love to get up in the morning.  One of the highlights of a new day for me is my coffee.  And there is nothing more fun that starting the day off with a special coffee mug.
I don't have one favorite mug.  I have a cabinet full of favorite mugs.  That is because each of my coffee mugs tells a story.  It is like sharing a moment with whomever gave the mug to me as I sip my coffee from it as the sun is just coming up.
I have never liked darkness or nighttime.  I could truly live in the land of the Midnight Sun.  I love sunshine and light and brightness.  Darkness does absolutely nothing for me.
My coffee sort of equates the start of a new day and the start of all things possible.  I love early morning more than any other time of day.

As I was visiting with Mom today, I was telling her how it doesn't matter how early I get up, I can't seem to get out of my tracks to go on to whatever is on my calendar for that day.  It isn't that I am a time waster....quite the opposite.  If I think I wasted a moment of time in a day, I feel very down.  Life is short.  My to-do list is long.  Therefore, wasting time isn't an option!
So, I came to realize that my love of that 2nd or 3rd (or 4th) cup of coffee in the morning isn't wasted time.  I have a plaque hanging in my computer/craft room that reads:  'Time you enjoyed wasting isn't time wasted.  ~T.S. Eliot'.
My coffee time is definitely time enjoyed (and most needed) therefore it isn't time wasted.
That being said......

My coffee time is precious to me.  The mugs I drink my coffee out of are totally mismatched and totally enjoyable.  I tend to reach for the mugs that I know are "mine."
I have a mug that looks like stoneware and it has a blue flower on it.  I bought these mugs in 1975 when I was in Richmond, VA visiting with my college friend, Ann.  We went to a big pottery warehouse and I knew that I was about to be married, so I bought a set of these mugs.  The rest of the set has broken or been lost throughout the years, but this one mug has hung on.  Whenever I pick up this mug to pour my coffee into, I think of the time that I bought it and I also relive my moments as a newlywed so happy and proud to have my own home to brew my own coffee in.  I had a stove top percolator and it truly made some delicious coffee.  I remember when my sister-in-law, Donna, visited Jim and I and thought we should have a drip type coffee maker and she went out and bought one for us.  It was orange and fancy and I remember thinking how cool it was, but in hindsight, nothing will take the place of a cup of coffee made stove top in a percolator and served in a stoneware mug.  Ah.  The good old days!

I have a mug that is precious to me because my friend, Marilyn, gave it to me.  I moved away from Raleigh in 1984 and that year for my birthday, she gave me this mug.  Marilyn and I were the best of friends and we shared the joy of motherhood with one another.  She had two girls and I had two boys.  Our kids were the same age and we enjoyed being together while they played.  We also drug them along with us for shopping sprees and lunches out.  Our husbands joined us when we decided to get together for dinner parties.  Our kids were very comfortable having sleepovers on certain nights when we adults felt like we needed some 'grown up time.'  Marilyn and I secretly hoped our kids might one day grow up, date, and maybe eventually marry.  Of course, time and distance happened and our kids are adults now with lives of their own.  I will, however, never forget my friend and the importance she had in my life at a very key time in my life.
The mug she gave me had a poem by Susan Polis Schultz on it and it reads:

'You are always my friend

when I am happy or sad

when I am alone or with people

if I talk to you today

or in a year

You are always my friend

and through the years

we will change, but it 

doesn't matter what we do

Throughout our lifetime

you are always my friend.'

I don't have much contact with Marilyn any more, but at a time in my life when I needed and wanted a certain type of friend, she was it.
I am sure if I met up with Marilyn tomorrow we could pick up right where we left off.
Everyone needs a Marilyn in their life.

I have another friend in my life that has blessed me in many ways.  Her name is Kathy and we still keep in touch although the miles separate us.  I learned to play bridge with Kathy and although bridge has become a mainstay in my life, Kathy doesn't play much any more.  She is a full time teacher, mother, wife and new grandmother.  She stays busy and doesn't love bridge enough to make time for it in her life right now.  She gave me a mug out of her cabinet one time when I was in NC visiting with her.  It says:  'A bad day at the Bridge Table is still better than Cleaning House!'
I love the mug and she knew I would.  She took it out of her cabinet and gave it to me as she knew it was apropos in my life at the moment, but not in hers.  I do think of Kathy whenever I use it.

I have an old mug that is white and has the comedy/drama masks on it.  It is a mug I bought for myself because I am a theater lover.  I have loved going to the theater since I was 13, but I also have loved performing since high school when my best friend, Terri, talked me into auditioning for "No No Nanette" at Shelby High School.  Once bitten, the theater bug stays in your blood.
I used to display this mug on a shelf of special mugs that I had in my house in Shelby, but now it is a usable mug in my cabinet.  It is so faded, the image is almost indiscernible.  Drinking out of this mug sometimes puts me on the 4th row in The Shubert Theater in NYC or on stage with PAGES Theater Group here in Florida.

Speaking of theater, one of the people I met here in Florida while doing theater was Pat.  Pat is one of those ladies who enters your life and makes her mark.  Again, she is someone I seldom see or hear from, but I know she is just a stone's throw away.  Pat is cheerful, smart and passionate.  I have some very fond memories of Pat.  She enjoyed gospel music, as do I.  We went to see the Gaither Family in a gospel concert, and we also went to see Earth, Wind and Fire together.  We saw many shows and we enjoyed celebrating Halloween at Pat's annual Halloween party.  We had cast parties at my house and we ate at Alley Cats after many a rehearsal for a show she was directing and I was in.
Pat had a shirt that said:  'All I really want to do is direct'.
And Pat was an amazing director.  I can think of times when I was probably a whiny brat, but Pat was always cheerful, yet firm, and her creativity knows no boundaries.  Pat could direct a cat to share its food with a dog.  She just has that knack.
Speaking of, Pat knew I loved cats and she gave me a mug that says:  Where my money goes~cat litter, cat food, cat toys, other.
Pat, as a dear friend, knew that my love of theater didn't surpass my love of cats.  Yes, I am truly the Crazy Cat Lady.

Knowing this, my sister-in-law, Linda, just recently visited and brought me a jumbo mug (knowing my love of coffee) and it says 'Crazy Cat Lady' on it!  I cracked up, as I have often been called this, but I didn't actually have anything that said this.  Linda knows me well.  In more ways than can be explained in this blog. Linda and I have always been the Fitzpatricks by marriage gals.  Yes, we have much to share and much to talk about.  But that could probably be a blog all its own!

And speaking of cats, my friend, Pat (another Pat), gave me a mug last Christmas with a sleeping orange tabby cat (my fave!) and a little mouse on it.  It says:  'Cat is napping, mice will play'.  I love this mug because is it tall and slender and shaped a bit different from some of my other mugs.  I can't decide if I love the friend who gave it to me or the rendition of my beloved cats on it better!
Needless to say, Pat knows me well.

I have a Precious Moments mug that says 'Mary, Blessed one, Pure in Heart'.  I love it.  It is all pink and white.  I actually think I bought this one for myself.  What can I say????
It is so ME.

I also have a mug that says 'Golf Widow'.  It has a long stemmed red rose on it.  This mug makes me chuckle!  Back in the days of my Shelby living, my husband was an avid golfer (as he was before then and since then!).  He had an amazing group of guys that he played with.  Some of these guys had wives who were good friends of mine.  Of them, Sally, Margaret and Allyson were 3 that I did a lot of socializing with.  We called ourselves Golf Widows.  Although it sounded like a sad state, the reality was that we used our golf widow time to have friend time!  We never missed the guys so much that we couldn't find time to enjoy ourselves.
Anyway, the mug inspired us to make tee shirts for ourselves.  We had a craft day one day where we painted tee shirts with a long stem rose and the words 'Golf Widow' on them.  They were so cute!
Little did anyone know that being that kind of  'widow' really wasn't all that bad!  


Another of my favorite mugs says:  'In the cookies of life, FRIENDS are the chocolate chips'.
What a thought.
My friend, Susan, gave me this mug for my birthday one year.
Susan is an amazing teacher, and I humbly volunteered in her classroom for a couple of years.  I really didn't do much, but I was always touched by the way Susan handled herself with her students.  She has a gift, and I have learned through years of experience that we all have our 'gifts' or our love languages.  Susan's gift is her amazing way with young people.  She knows how to inspire them, instill manners and give them a zest for life.  I hope to volunteer in her classroom again one day when the timing is right for me.  I don't know what I really add to the mix, but I do know it gives me an insight into a friend I already love and admire.
It is a good idea to get to know your friends in ways that are not the norm....to see them at work, with their families, or in an environment that is not your usual comfort zone.
Hats off to Susan, and any other amazing teacher.
And I am glad to be one of the chocolate chips in your life!    

To add some humor, I have a mug that says "Save Oxygen.  Shut Up."  Guess where this mug came from?  MY OWN MOTHER!  One year on my birthday she gave this mug to me.  I didn't know whether to laugh or cry!  First of all, I have never said Shut Up.  I didn't use it with my kids or my students.....because my mother taught me that this wasn't a nice thing to say!

It became a real joke that she gave this mug to me.  Several years later when I asked her about it, she told me she thought it was funny and she knew I collected mugs, so she bought it!  I don't think there was any intentional message in the sentiment.  At least, I hope not!

And finally, a mug that I cherish is a 40th birthday mug....now faded.  My kids gave it to me and at the time they thought it was so funny.....as did I!  I guess I am glad to be alive and kicking 17 years later.
This mug is a reminder to me of many things.  It is that we can mark certain milestone birthdays in our lives, but those birthdays are only stepping stones to future birthdays.
Our kids can think something is so funny at the time, and in hindsight, I am thinking that my oldest child is less than a decade away from receiving a 40th birthday mug himself.  
     
Life is funny.  It is interesting.  It is a wild ride!
We have friends come and go.  We have interests and hobbies take place at certain times of our lives.  We live in one home and move to another.  We have passions.  We have interests.  We are who we are at that moment in time.
All all these things add, multiply and divide themselves to make us who we really are and who we will be remembered as.

And memories are made of this.