I’m feeling pretty quiet today. We had a nice, mellow weekend and that was nice. But last night I had a horrible time getting comfortable and getting good sleep. By the time I saw that it was just after 5am I gave up and decided to start my day early. But really I am craving one of those old school pre holiday days.
Remember when classes were on break from university or college and you were home with nothing to do? Maybe these were the days that you caught back up with friends from high school or slept in until 2pm. But it was just that simple, peaceful lull…that is what I am craving. I want a quiet house with no chores to be done and in a couple of hours I want someone to come rouse me from my book reading or nap and let me know that lunch is on the table. An easy lunch where someone has pulled out all the best sandwich fixings from the fridge or pantry and all you need to do is dream big and assemble well.
I usually spent my holiday breaks from school at my Grandparents house. I would sleep in, then wake up and take a nice bath in the tiny guest bathtub. Freshly clean I would stroll into the kitchen where coffee was waiting in the pot and those horribly wasteful but adorable one serving boxes of cereal would be on the counter for me. A xeroxed copy of the day’s crossword puzzle would be at my place at the table and in the distance I would hear the typewriter tapping away in Grandmother’s study and probably loud waltz music from my Grandfather’s study with his perfectly timed squeaky chair accompaniment. (yes. I grew up in a family where every family member had their own study. It was delicious.)
After a leisurely breakfast I would put my dishes in the sink (they were always magically washed) and stop by GM’s study first to see if she had plans. GM was the plan maker, the list creator, the captain of the ship. She would choreograph every day with breathtaking detail. It was here that I would learn what time the next meal was scheduled or what errands I would be invited to join in on. Next I would saunter in to Grandfather’s study where he would yell, “Kiddle!” and I would pull up one of his plaid (oh yes) upholstered study chairs and he would share with me the contents of whatever project he was working on.
He was always working on a project- whether it was writing a Sunday School lesson or working on an essay. Sometimes he was judging essays for local contests or reviewing the contestants for an up and coming science fair. Or he was reading a book that someone had given him and making a list of all the factual errors. He was the most brilliant man I ever knew and yet I never felt dumb when I was with him.
Often I would spend the entire day in Grandfather’s study with him. I would return to the kitchen and prepare us two cups of coffee and we would enjoy each others company. Nobody swore as well as he did or laughed as heartily. I don’t think anyone ever understood me as well either. And as we lead up to the holiday season I am filled with a deep, deep missing of him. Of just being in the same room with him: peppermints, licorice, 4711, and the clang of his spoon in his coffee mug.
So let’s say that you and I could have a coffee talk today. What kind of coffee shall I serve you and what will we talk about?
{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }
Coffee-free coffee, please. Hot chocolate, perhaps?
I’d like to talk about missing old fashioned holidays when we’d actually get together with the whole family and enjoy it, and people looked forward to it, and made an actual effort to see each other.
as long as it has caffeine in it!! I think with you I ‘d like to tell about my grandma.. She was so special…
Decaf please, with lots of flavored creamer. We could talk about baby stuff and how much better prepared you are for your little boy’s arrival than I am for mine.
I like mine black and strong (too strong to be anywhere near remotely healthy) and I’d ask you more about your grandad and tell you about mine. xxxx
I would like a mexican chocolate mocha (with extra cinnamon and cayenne) please if its not too much trouble. I would just give anything to make you laugh. I have so much i would like to talk to someone with and maybe especially you, but mostly I would just want to entertain you. You need a good laugh and someone to come in and make you a lovely sandwhich with a cup of homemade soup. You are so dear to me. And I think this holiday season will be especially hard for me because I will be missing Sweets. And maybe especially because I know my mom will be alone. Ahhhhh, yes well, enough of that; I’ll never get you to laugh on tha train of thought. Love you!!!!
Coffee is gross, so I will have hot chocolate with peppermint in it. And we shall drink out of my gorgeous Williams-Sonoma snowmen mugs that Matt bought me not even on sale! (I always get all my holiday stuff on sale after the holiday, but I wanted these SO much that I caved.) Then we can start by discussing how everyone else in the country is freezing and I’m not even wearing socks today.
a good vanilla carmel latte with extra whip and carmel drizzle please
.. its a rainy day here wishing for snow flurries.
holidays mean family friends laughter and food…^_^
not all this fight to get the best deals at the store..bicker with everyone and spend money till your in major debt.:p
hugs to you
I would love a hot herbal tea (you choose the flavor) and then I would love to tell you about my gee-gee (could never say grandpa) and his tiny wood cabin in the woods that he built and the acres in the Appalachian mountains that he bought just to ensure a little bit of peace for the animals he loved so much. We could talk about how I would automatically jump into his truck when he came to visit for the chance to spend a few days with him (invited or not). I could try not to cry when I talk about how much I miss him (he died during the holidays many, many years ago) and you could tell me more and more about the studies and your grandfather projects and what kinds of aromas he carried with him in the house (because there is always a distinctive scent, no?)
I would go back in time to when i was about 10, wake up at my grandma’s house and have her all to myself between 7 & 9 when my cousin’s woke up. I have no idea what we talked about (she died when I was 16), but I know it always made me feel loved, heard and immensly pleased to have a willing adult all to myself.
Cinnamon coffee, please, with cream and sugar. I’m a good listener, so I’d love to hear more stories of your grandparents. I would share stories of my own parents who were quite the characters, too. And I’d like to tell your son what a great family he’s joining!
I don’t drink coffee. Could we do a nice cappucinno/ hot chocolate/ loads of creamer blend?
What I wish for most is to be able to talk to someone that actually understands what it is like to have IF. I want a chance to look someone in the eye and just know that the look that will be returned won’t have a hint of confusion or exasperation. I am just so frustrated right now with the people around me who think that because I have my bean I should just be happy. Of course, I can’t really blame them. I even assumed that the ache would either go away or be minimal. It’s not and it makes for one hell of a miserable life.
Or, I would also like to just sit with you and tell you all of the great things about having a boy. All of the best moments that you could look forward to. How you should start buying GeoTrax toys now so that he can build room size tracks and then beam at you when he realizes that he did it himself.
Ahh, I suck/ I am so melancholy. Sorry. Maybe you should pick a more upbeat person to have coffee with. :0)
I guess we’ve been riding the same wavelength with me missing my Big Mama and you missing your grandfather.
I’d like a standard cup of coffee, light and sweet, just like me. Preferably with one of those holiday limited-time-only creamers like gingerbread or egg nog.
I’d like to hear more stories about your grandfather. I like hearing stories about strong, present, male family members. I didn’t have that, so I relish such tales and try to experience it vicariously for myself.
I want a grande not fat blck and white mocha w/ whip and chocolate drizzle. I think I may just have my hubby pick one up for me now actually (i totally still drink caffeine).
What should we talk about? I’m full of a little schnarkiness right now, so I will keep my subjects to myself for now. I’ll get it all out on my own blog soon so you won’t have to deal with the controversy!
And go ahead and click the frer link again. i commented in your comment, but if you just click it again, you’ll see it. yahoo gives the error when 2 ppl try to look at it at one time, so the error comes up a lot when I first put up a new link.
Man I so what to be that kind of grandmother. Now all I have to do is talk Angel into having a child while I’m still relatively young.
What a sweet picture of winters with your grandparents.
I will drink anything thing that has caffeine, so you may choose the coffee.
I just read through your comments and I would so very much like to have coffee with you and with your obviously wise and dear friend Shawna. Her comment spoke to me and was exactly what I had hoped I would be able to convey to you….but far more eloquently than I would be able to do. I would love to sit and hold your hand and know that we both (all three of us?) know the searing pain of IF and the wretched evil that it is. I would also like to share with you the joy I feel each time I think about your having a son. You are going to have such an amazing journey, and I would love to sit and chat with you about raising a boy. So, when we have our coffee, can we please invite Shawna? Let’s be sure to have hot chocolate for her.
That story was so lovely, brought tears to my eyes. When I was a kid I would get to have sleepovers at my grandparents’ every now and then, and it was always my favorite thing to do. Their house was always meticulously spotless, and both my grandparents made everything look so effortless. My Nana would give me some tea with milk and sugar with breakfast, and then I’d walk down to the beach to go swimming with my grandfather. Maybe we’d go to the mall, or maybe we’d just sit in the screened porch in the back of the house and talk.
In terms of coffee, and talk, I love both. In terms of what kind of coffee, I only really like coffee coffee. Occasionally I’ll have a cappucino as a treat, but generally I like just good old drip coffee. My favorite though is flavored coffee, which is really big in New England, where I’m from (hello Dunkin Donuts, yum) but out here in L.A. it’s totally passe. But I don’t care! I like Don Francisco’s Hawaiian Hazelnut with cream and sugar.
That was a great story. I spent many of my college breaks with my grandparents too, and your story brought back the warm feelings I always had for them.
Oh, now I want to tell you all about my grandpa who smelled like peppermints and taught me to be a cardsharp and who always, always beat me at checkers.
I like lots of cream in my coffee.
i miss you. and we would just catch up on everything.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Oh how I love coffee talk. I’ll take a simple cup of decaf with lots of cream and a hint of sugar.
Coffee talk always makes me think of grandparents. My grandma and I still have coffee together when I see her, so I would talk with you about my grandma and how she taught me to bake. How we would get up early in the morning during the summer, before it was too hot, and go pick blackberries by the creek behind her house. I would share stories about my grandpa, whom I miss terribly, and how we would spend the day building a birdhouse or working in the garden, rarely saying a word but understanding each other through and through. Whenever you talk about your grandfather, I am reminded of how much I miss mine.
Thank you for sharing that story. It made me so teary and nostalgic.
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that picture of that tasty coffee looks sooooo good.
I don’t drink coffee, but I’d love to join you for some hot chocolate – with peppermint and a big dallop of cool whip on top. I’d love to hear more about your Grandfather. I never got to spent much time with mine – he lived too far away (and the other died before I was born.) And we could talk photography. I’d love that.
Normally I’d say a latte, no foam, but today a mocha sounds better with a little foam and some cinnamon on top.
Well, as an academic (gerontologist), I’d like to get on the other side of the desk and have you tell me about your days taking care of your GM. In particular, I wonder about her humor. I catch your blog a couple times a week and it seems her humor is still intact as, it seems, is much of her personality. Facinating. I’d like to hear more about what makes her laugh.
I would have some regular coffee with a sprinkling of cinnamon and we could chat about how life goes on… how important people leave us, but new people come into our lives… but I wouldn’t be all Elton John about it.
What a gorgeous memory – you painted it beautifully. I can imagine, as a caretaker, you would miss having a lazy day where someone takes care of you. It’s nice to hear a memory of GM like that, a reminder of what she was like in her younger years. I would love to hear more.
Oh, I was just waxing lyrical in my head about a day like that. Leisure. Just a day, a whole day, to breathe.
Oddly enough, I was thinking of having a cup of coffee or three with you today, when I was *finally* sending your package. I’ve said it many times, but I just have this feeling that the two of us would get on famously.
I don’t think I’d be great coffee talk company at the moment, as I’m on the brink of tears all the time it seems. When I sort my head out, we could talk about music, my love of the pervert Gary Oldman, and goats. I’m sure you’re aching at the thought that this won’t happen anytime soon, eh?
this is what being @ my sister’s house is like for me… thinking of you a lot today ~ even got some local oregon tree porn shots for you!!!
Cali, I need to ask a HUGE favour…
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We currently owe $2,200 on our last IVF cycle from September where we got exactly NOTHING and we have to pay this off before we can try again in January. To win this competition would help SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much. We tried for 3.5 years to have Charlotte and because we’re older we don’t have that much time up our sleeves to try for number 2.
Do you think you could beg for votes on your blog, please???!!!!
To see our photo online and rate us click on the following URL:
To rate us, click on the number 5 (should be the only number that’s not highlighted). You won’t get a message to say you’ve done it or anything, but the counter will go up if you refresh the page.
The competition closes early December so we don’t have much time!