Lists of things
First Americano of the day.
Every morning, I have at least 3 Americanos before I do anything else. When I was a kid, I could not understand adults that could not function without coffee. This idea that “life begins after coffee” seemed dramatic. How could a cup of nasty black shit be the fuel that starts anyone's day?
My mother was not a coffee drinker, her fuel came from Pepsi. My grandparents were coffee drinkers but now that I think back on it, they put so much cream and sugar in their coffee, they probably should have settled for the Pepsi too.
Coffee started to become enjoyable to me shortly after I tried my very first frappucino. It was 2001 and I was dating this emo kid who convinced me that going to Starbucks and drinking fraps was a thing that “scene kids’ did, and I so desperately wanted to be part of a scene.
My order was a brownie chip frappuccino, extra whipped cream, and chocolate drizzle. I was hooked. I thought I was hooked on coffee but obviously, it was sugar that I liked.
I would continue my love of all things dessert coffee until around 2009 when I tried and fell in love with espresso with a dollop of whipped cream, otherwise known as an Espresso Con Panna - dessert, yes.
Eventually, two shots of espresso were not enough, so I started to drink coffee with espresso shots and whipped cream. Iced lattes with caramel syrup and whipped cream. Cappuccino with sugar and caramel drizzle. With every drink iteration, with every new coffee beverage, I added a little less sugar each time. Finally, sometime around 2015, I was deep into a love of traditionally brewed coffee, sometimes pour-over or french press, and decided that I was going to stop putting half & half and sugar into my coffee. Cold turkey, I thought… wow, brave.
But I didn’t even notice it was gone. I am now a black coffee drinker.
My love of coffee also means that I have a fondness for mugs - mugs with silly sayings or movie quotes hit the hardest for me. I love them. I want them all, even though I drink my coffee alone and at home, I still want mugs that reflect my personality. It recently became clear to me that I have too many mugs and ALL of them are kinda cheesy. So I am on the hunt for nice, classic mugs that are simple and something that an almost 40 year old woman would have in her home. I know that I want mugs that can be easily stacked on each other. My mug situation is anything but consistent. The mouth widths and depths are all over the place, making it a gamble on whether or not a mug will topple over you when you open a cabinet. I am leaning toward something similar to these but am still looking around.
In the 90s, my family bonded over TV. Each night, we would grab our plate of dinner and sit on the living room floor (or the couch, if you were lucky to secure a spot earlier), and watch TV shows like Roseanne, 90210, Married with Children, and of course, The Simpsons. My family was a lot like Roseanne’s, we were poor, both parents worked odd jobs, and we always had an aunt over. The Simpsons, while dysfunctional, seemed to have their lives together. They owned a nice home, Homer had a stable job and paycheck, and Marge stayed home with the kids. This article from The Atlantic goes into why that life is no longer attainable.
I have only eaten at an actual restaurant a few times since March. Our first meal outside of the house was in October and it was incredibly weird. And then late October, when things felt like they were going in a good direction, we traveled to Maine and ate out three times during that trip. The rest of our meals were either in our rental car or in our Airbnb. We have tried to support local restaurants by ordering takeout and delivery but I know that it was and is not enough. We lost a lot of great restaurants last year.
I love old photographs of New York City. These photos of people playing in the snow in Central Park has missing New York so much.
I started doing another daily photo series on my IG account. After taking 7 weeks off from IG, I returned on New Years Day with a new challenge and a time limit for each day — no more than 30 mins of IG time.
That’s all for this week.
Happy New Year!