“You don’t drink coffee; you heat up coffee.”
These words were said to me by my mother and upon hearing her words I had a revelation: my love of coffee and my work ethics clashed.
I was in undergrad living at home with my parents and while I studied, I drank coffee (or so I thought), apparently my mother would watch me walk down the hallway, put my coffee mug in the microwave, set the timer and wait for my study-juice to heat up.
“Ding!” Ah the sweet elixir of the study gods was revived once more. I retrieved the cup, took a sniff of the earthy aroma and headed back to hit the books.
An hour or two later I would walk back to the kitchen, heat up my coffee and walk back to the room. This was my study cycle. The only time I got up from my desk was to heat up my cup of coffee.
When my mother saw me in the kitchen again she asked, “Is that the same cup you heated up earlier?” “Yes,” I replied.
She shook his head and said, “You don’t drink coffee; you heat it up.”
That was when it hit me: my love of coffee and my work ethics clashed. I was so focused when I studied that I would forget my coffee and have to continuously heat it up. I immediately went on Amazon and bought a coffee cup warmer. Yeah problem solved! Sort of.
Fast forward to present day: 2016, I am 46 and it has been 10 years since my revelation. I’m at work, walking down the hallway to heat up my coffee or get a fresh cup because the one at my desk is old and cold.
Why don’t I have a coffee cup warmer at my desk you ask? Oh I do, but I’m afraid to accidentally burn down the building so I don’t use it.
My fear is that in my haste of packing up for the night, I will forget to turn off the warmer and destroy my place of employment. Once again, the coffee/work ethic dilemma is upon me.
I guess I should just accept the fact that my strong work ethic prevails over my much loved coffee, but heated breaks will always be welcome.
Or I could drink my coffee first like a normal or sane person and not have to worry about fire or having The Great Coffee Spill of 2020 upon me: https://coffeefueledstories.com/2021/03/01/the-great-coffee-spill-of-2020/.
