Mugs and Memories

Mugs and Memories

I was sipping coffee this morning out of my new Sunflower Mug that Deronda brought me from Yoder, KS and started thinking about how my morning cup of coffee always brings a memory, depending on what mug I take out of the cabinet.  No other “thing” in my daily life really makes me think of someone like my morning coffee does. 

Yesterday, I drank from my What the PUG mug that my friend and co-worker Kathleen gave me when I was in Austin at Hospice of the Hills.  Every time I pull that mug down randomly, or Joe brings me my coffee in the mug, I think of Austin.  For a few minutes, I think about my experiences there and the people I met there ….kind of like a trip down memory lane.  Photos can have the same effect….but my mug memories are even fuller.   That mug always takes me back to the Girls Night Outs we used to have where the Fab 4 , me, Kathleen, Irene and Abbie from Hospice of the Hills would go out and have dinner and gossip and catch up on each other’s personal lives because we were co-workers and good friends.

The What the Pug mug also has the power to make me sad at times when I drink from it because my memory takes me down the road of Puggy and how much I love that dog and how my heart still hurts that he was taken and has not been found.  I am only able to console myself by thinking that all hope is not gone, that someone will bring him back someday….or that whoever took him is a good person that was just desperate for a dog for their kids…or something along those lines.  Otherwise, it hurts too much.

My Aransas Pass Mug that says Joe on it brings the memories back of going to the beach with Chris and Juliet and the dogs and what a great time it was.  That mug was not even purchased at the beach but instead I found it at a garage sale in Bee Cave that I went to with Juliet and I was so tickled to find it so randomly because we had been there recently and of course, it had Joe’s name on it.  What a treat that trip was.  The eclectic Laughing Horse Inn with its wacko colors and very 60’s feel to it.  That mug brings back memories of how happy Chris was to drive a golf cart, and how we made a fire on the beach and roasted hot dogs, and the birthday dinner for Chris where I had to be extra careful not to touch the shrimp because I’m so highly allergic…and then I ended up using the dish towel that Joe had wiped his shrimpy hands on and  broke out in hives anyway.  We followed that trip up with a trip just Joe and Quincy and I went on to Aransas Pass.  We did the Shrimp thing again and I was extra cautious this time.  The cup brings me the memory of going into the seafood place to buy the shrimp and the guy educating me that Shrimp was not shellfish when I said I was allergic to shellfish  as I stood back from the shrimp tank.  I wanted to say “thank you Mr. Encyclopedia”. 

My MOM mug is special because it was given to me by Chris and Andy on a Mothers Day long ago.  It was the first Mothers day after the divorce.  Always before, Mike would take them to pick something out for me.  That year, 2001 they were on their own as Mike had left.  So when I got the Mom mug filled with candy and a balloon that said Happy Mothers Day from 2 teenage boys who used their own imagination and money to buy me a gift, well it was really special!  Everytime I use that mug I celebrate that I have 2 wonderful sons who love me and who gave me a reason to go on in a very  dark part of my life. 

Then there is the mug with my mom and dad’s picture on it.  I am not sure who gave it to them, probably one of their grandkids at Christmas.  But I ended up with it after my mom died and we undertook the task of cleaning out her closets and cabinets when my dad was ready to move on.  Theat mug takes me back to a time of family gatherings, my mom’s favorite thing and I realize that this is where my love of family springs from.  There was simply nothing like, and never will be again in the same way, a family gathering at my mom’s.  She was at her happiest when her kids and grandkids were together.  Nothing, a million dollars even, would have made her happier.  Joe and I were talking about retirement the other day and he was saying “if I know you like I think I do, the most important thing for you will be to have the means to go and visit your kids and grandkids.  He was right. 

My most recent mug is one that says LAUGH on it.  A co-worker at my last job, which was the most stressful 3 months of my life, gave it to me to remind me of the kind of person I am, not the kind of person I was expected to be.   When the world became humorless to me and I rarely laughed or made other around me laugh, there was obviously something very wrong.  And so I left, took a leap of faith.  And even though I am still searching for a job and all the discouragement that brings with it, I find myself laughing and making complete strangers laugh and it feels better than a salary. 

Every once in a while I will go to the cabinet that has my mugs and take them all out and put them back in a different order just so the same ones don’t get used over and over again.

Yesterday, I pulled out the red Christmas mug that says Christmas cookies on it and gingerbread men.  Now you would think that was a mug that would remind me of Christmas but you would be wrong.  You see, the first time I went to visit Joe in his RV after we had started dating and asked for a drink of water, that was what he brought it to me in.  This was in September, way before Christmas.  I remember laughing and saying he must be ready for Christmas.  Turns out,  it was one of 2 cups he had in his entire cabinet.  The other was dirty.   I love that mug because it brings back memories of getting to know Joe, of falling in love.  It will never be packed away with the rest of my Christmas stuff after Christmas has come and gone.  

I have a mug that says  Sisel Kaffe on it.  That’s a fancy coffee that is only sold by a distributor.  That was my “Thank you gift” for not putting my car in gear when I went to the RV laundromat and it rolled down hill and knocked over the neighbors Harley causing minor damage but enough that he was able to parlay a brand new bike with the insurance settlement and a trade in.  HE came by the RV a few weeks after the incident to give me some coffee samples and the mug as a thank you….and oh by the way, would you like to be on my coffee pyramid…its only like $40 a pound!!!!!   I still steam when I think of it.  I hear him telling the story of how his buddy was able to get an insurance estimate for him that was way more than it should have been and how he had suckered the insurance company (mine) into a lot more money than he should have gotten and etc. etc.  I remember wanting to punch him when he was telling me how he had “cheated” as if it was something to be proud of.  (oh and by the way, yes I did call my insurance and tell them what he said…for what good it did)….for weeks every time I walked Quincy at the RV park people would call out  “hey LeeAnn, I could use a new paint job, fence, etc. if you want to roll your car my way”.  And when the coffee (which was pretty good by the way but should be for the price) ran out, he came down one day and knocked on my door with another gift for me which he left with Joe (because I wasn’t at home).  This time he brought a “WEIGHT LOSS COFFEE” for me to try.  Talk about STEAMED (pun intended).  Joe had to restrain me from going over and pushing over his new Harley! 

My Casa De Cristo mug which if my Spanish is correct means Home for Christ that Chris and Juliet brought me back after their mission trip to thank me for keeping the dogs is special too.  It reminds me when I drink from it how fortunate I am to have a home when so many don’t.  And it also makes me think of how Juliet came into my life…..because Chris went on a mission trip at the last minute when someone else backed out….a journey that forever changed his life because he met Juliet on that trip in 2006. 

I even have some mug memories that I don’t even have the mug anymore.  My awesome OSU cup that got broken into a million pieces when for no reason at all, I fell down while out walking, cup in hand.  My First United Methodist mug that one of my Sunday School students gave me long ago that sadly got broken when I tripped over the vacumn cord and knocked over the tv tray it was setting on.  I have a few mugs that have no handle that I’ve saved…like the one that say I’m allergic to mornings” that I use as a pencil cup on my desk…and my Live, Laugh, Love mug that a friend gave me that fell victim to my clumsiness and now has a chip on the rim so large you can’t drink from it….it’s on my dresser full of earrings that have no match…..kinda like socks…I always seem to lose one.

I have one mug left from my set of china that was the only survivor of the RV move to Austin since someone I won’t name…lol….forgot to check the very back of the cabinets and it rattled my china into a million pieces.  And a mug that I don’t use because its so old that I am afraid it would break…That one is a depression glass coffee mug that my Grandma gave me 40 years ago.  That one is bubble wrapped and in a safe place.

And so there you have it.   My morning cup of Joe consists of a steaming hot cup of memories in whatever random mug comes out of the cabinet when I reach.  And Joe….who makes every morning special.  My cup runneth over.

L