My Love Affair with Coffee

It is no secret that I love coffee. When I get to the preschool, the first thing I do is make a beeline for the coffee. When a friend comes over, she can almost always expect me to offer her a cup. In the evenings, Gary and I very often will make a run to the coffee shop for a mini-date. But, coffee and I have an interesting history, actually.

When I was somewhere around age 12, some friends and I were cooped up at the church building while our parents were in a meeting. Being very bored, we decided to see what we could find in the kitchen to make for a snack. All we could find were two things: coffee and a little bit of vanilla ice cream. Not enough ice cream, mind you, for us all to have a bowl. Soooo...one of the girls suggested we make a pot of coffee and then add a little vanilla ice cream to it. And that is what we did. I was very nervous. Neither of my parents drank coffee and I knew that although it smells heavenly, it might not taste very good. Well, friends, coffee + one scoop of ice cream= a very yummy treat. Such a yummy treat that I drank it up like nobody's business. That night, I had a stomach ache, and I decided perhaps coffee and I were not the best of friends.

When I got into high school, some members of our church opened up a coffee shop and a friend of mine worked there. She convinced me to give coffee another try and began brewing me up mocha lattes and such. Well, it was heaven all over again. This time with moderation. This time, no stomach ache!!! So I became a coffee drinker, but only a very doctored coffee drinker.

After high school I began working full time at a law office as a legal secretary, and coffee drinking was the norm for almost everyone there. Without my beloved syrups and froth, I was unsure about trying the regular ole Folgers, but discovered that with a little creamer and sugar, it was just fine.

When Gary and I got together, he was a black coffee drinker. This was out of necessity because he was in medical school, pulling frequent all nighters. I only drank coffee at work, and even then only rarely, so he was really the major coffee drinker of the two of us. After we married, and the coffee maker generally sat unused most of the time.

All of that changed when a coffee shop/book store was put in just a few blocks from our home, one home back. We suddenly found ourselves drawn to the store and began to enjoy stopping in for a relaxing hour or so to drink our coffee and look at books. The coffeemaker came out at home and we began brewing up our favorite coffee shop blends at home.

When we moved here, I began drinking coffee more than ever. (Especially once I figured out that it was an appetite suppressant. Anytime I felt the munchies coming on, I would brew a pot of coffee.) And then it pass that one day I decided to try the coffee black. And I liked it. And I felt very grown-up to know that I could enjoy my coffee black. No more would I have to scrounge around or beg for cream and sugar when handed a cup of coffee.

And thus, I had what we affectionately called "the coffee birthday" this past year. I got an espresso machine, a new fancier coffee maker, a large percolator, and a humungo bag of coffee beans in my favorite blend.

And so now I am a very versatile coffee consumer. And coffee and I are good friends.