coffee

i'm 30 years old with three young children. i can't remember the last night i've slept all night without waking, i rarely get a nap and hardly ever get to sleep in. i clean and cook and clean and teach and clean and the kids destroy faster than i can keep it all in order. i see all these other mommies enjoying coffee, looking awake and energized and no matter how many ways i've tried it, i just don't like it. i've wanted to love it, i've even wanted to just like it but honestly it tastes like dirt. yes... i said dirt. i've tried it cold, i've tried it hot. i've used creamer. i've used sugar. i've used folgers and every other brand i could find. i've tasted coffee from starbucks and other 'professional' coffee shops and none has even remotely been what i would consider tasty. i will admit i love love love the way it smells though. i walk down the coffee isle in the grocery store just to smell the yumminess. i just wish it tasted the way it smelled. oh... that would be so yummy!!

i think my husband secretly loves to watch me try coffee or even tea for that fact. he'll tell me that his cup tastes really good and he's sure i'd like it. i'll take a sip and i just can't help but make funny faces at the disgusting taste in my mouth (and to set the record straight wine makes me make these horrible faces too, actually worse than coffee or tea, lol). i always see him smile and laugh and i'm sure he now does this on purpose.

you know... as i think about this, i think maybe my mom sat him down before we got married and told him about this. as far back as i can remember, my mom drank coffee. her coffee preferences have changed over the years but it has always been coffee in the mornings and after desert at family get togethers. she also enjoys hot chinese tea. i honestly don't remember her ever asking me to try coffee but i remember, oh... i don't know... probably about 800 times to taste chinese tea. we'd be sitting at a chinese restaurant with that little teapot on the table and those tiny little chinese cups and she'd say and i quote, "LeAnna, you should try this. I know you don't like tea, but this tea is really good." so... i'd try it. all 800 times i'd try it and all 800 times i'd make funny faces, she'd laugh and i'd say i'd never try it again. until next time of course.

mom likes starbucks, cold, something with whipped cream and carmel and who knows what else. i try it every time, make my funny faces, laugh and just drink my hot chai. yes i know chai is tea but it tastes more like pumpkin pie that any tea so... i like it =) while mom was visiting this weekend she insisted we stop at the coffee bean. i honestly don't mind stopping, just spending time with my mom is the fun part. we go in and i see pumpkin coffee displayed on the wall. i try to convince her to order it since i LOVE pumpkin but know i probably won't like it so i'm not willing to order it myself. she refuses. flat out refuses and says she wants to order hazelnut. hazelnut, really?? i don't like the way hazelnut tastes or even smells but that's what she orders. she asks if i want a taste. can you guess what i said? yep... i said ok. i take a very small taste (i've learned over the years to take very small sips) and... are you ready... it was good. i thought maybe i may have tasted some part not blended with the coffee so i took another taste, and then another and OH MY GOODNESS... THIS STUFF IS GREAT!! seriously it tasted like a coffee milkshake sent from heaven!!! i could have drank that entire cup. i held back and shared with my mom considering she did buy it and it was hers but now i'm thinking about that wonderful sip (or four) and thinking that there is hope for me. i wonder what makes their coffee blended drinks so different? i wonder what the pumpkin one tastes like? i wonder if it'll taste that good next time? i wonder if i were to drink that much coffee if i'd feel the caffeine work??!! i wonder when i can try it again? until i can, i'll have to look at this yummy picture and drool.