Morning Coffee

Morning coffee is a bit different these days ... nothing but the sounds of my off balance ceiling fan, and neighborhood dogs barking at the folks rifling through the green cans that are curbside because its trash  day. It wasn’t that long ago that I had to pour my coffee into a travel mug if  I wanted any hope of drinking it still warm. I drove from school to school dropping kiddos off and then rushed back home to handle the mountain of laundry (or not) which if you know me you know I’d rather alphabetize my craft supplies than do laundry. Point is the coffee was always cold and I felt hurried from activity to errand to activity. Now I sit calmly, no rush with a dainty handled mug and savor my favorite coffee. . I know people who wake up early to have their coffee like this every day, kids or not. My hats off to you. My logic was always sleep a little longer.. then drink more coffee. The point is this... from the day my kids were born it’s been a catapult thrusting me through time to the dainty handled coffee mug days I find myself in now. I used to spend a lot of time wishing REALLY badly that I had those days back. Lately I just sit for a while drinking my coffee and feeling REALLY grateful that I had them to begin with.  Then I carry on with my new day. Appreciation of each moment and the idea that I too have graduated right along with the kids keeps me from “drowning in nostalgia” to quote John Hughes. Enjoy your coffee ladies and gentleman... metaphorically or otherwise.

Laugh track

For a long time, part of my normal routine involved driving down half of the freeway every other Friday a couple months out of the year with my kids in order to sit and wait in a department store parking lot so that they could get out of my car and get in to their dads truck at which time he would drive down the other half of the freeway to his house for the remainder of the weekend just to do it all in reverse on Sunday. Not an unusual circumstance for lots of families these days sadly and when this particular adventure began I had a difficult time filling the miles between point A and point B with something other than music that my kids didn't really want to listen to or awkward conversation about what they thought the weekend might go like. Pandora was a relatively new thing -  at least to me and when my oldest suggested listening to comedy radio instead of my tired '80's playlist I said sure. Thats when I heard John Mulaney for the first time. I've always enjoyed stand up comedy but since most of my favorites were wildly vulgar I hadn't shared them with kids yet. So there we are.. spinning down our half of the freeway all of us laughing so hard we're almost in tears  as John Mulaney tells a story about a party he once threw in High School and  the awkward miles passed with ease. It was so fun that we did it again on the way home Sunday and then again the  next time we made the drive. We  had created a tradition.  We still quote that first comedy routine we heard of John's and lots of others too. Tonight I sat with 2 of my kids on the couch and laughed to the point of tears watching his newest comedy special and I was grateful for those trips halfway down the freeway when our little unit took an otherwise crap situation and made something good of it. It's amazing what laughter can do.