These are a few of my favorite things...

Recently I have taken a more "healthy living" approach to life and mostly cut coffee out of my life...:( Sad...I know. However, it's not so sad because coffee, or lattes really, have become more a treat for me now, something I have come to savor instead of just chugging down and moving on. They have even become a point of interest for me in such a way that I sort of want to study them. I have had inner battles with myself numerous times about applying at coffee shop. I want to be apart of that atmosphere. I want to make the drinks. I want to have the knowledge! However, I also don't want to ruin that atmosphere for myself. I love coffee shops. I go there to relax, unwind, and soul search...as well as a little people watching from time to time. I fear that if I were to work in a coffee shop, especially one of the ones I love and frequent often, they would lose their appeal because I would be crossing the customer/barista borders. I would know intimate details that have held a wonderful air of mystery for me all these years, and yes, I do mean all these years. I have been drinking coffee regularly since I was 16 years old.

However, now, I am drinking green tea more regularly. It has loads of health benefits ranging from being good for your teeth because it works as a natural anti-bacterial and has a natural source of fluorine to holding the possibility to prevent or even cure some forms of cancers! Plus, green tea, when fermented little or not at all has loads less caffeine than coffee. This is good in my case because coffee tends to sky rocket my ADHD tendencies. ;o)

I have been reluctant to let go of coffee, though. I am coming to terms with the reasons why, slowly. A few of the things that keep my grip strong are mostly sentimental. Coffee was part of my personality. My mile a minute personality, bouncing from thought to thought, caffeine buzzed, became something I was known for, something people might consider one of my quirks. I fear that if coffee is not in my life anymore, I will be losing some sort of essence of my personality. Another reason I have gained some understanding of is that coffee ties me to my mom.

From the time I could sit in a car seat on the table, I was always witness to my mom having coffee on Saturday mornings with one or more of her friends. My mom used to tell me that I was such a good baby, low maintenance. No matter what kinds of things were going on in my life, my mom having coffee on a Saturday morning with her friends around the table was something stable. It brought me comfort.

Once I got into high school, I realized that coffee was not just something that brought me comfort, it was something that would allow me to stay up to all hours of the night talking to my boyfriend on the phone and still get up early the next morning and jet off to school, without eating breakfast of course. My health habits in high school were not all that great, but it was like this silent agreement between my mom and I. She got up early, started the pot of coffee, and by the time I was rushing out the door, the pot was full and ready to be poured. It became part of our routine, and I never dropped it, not even when one of my teachers in high school told me I was not allowed to bring a closed drink from home.

During my senior year at high school, I had a great art teacher, the first hour of the day, so I started taking a different route to class. She never minded me bringing in my coffee. Oddly enough, it didn't even spark an idea in all the other kids' minds to start bringing their own hot drinks. Again, there was that silent agreement. I was different than the other kids, and my art teacher got me. We had another bond in that our names were both Kylie, but hers was spelled differently.

So you see, I feel now that I have developed a more healthy relationship with Coffee. It is a comfort to me now, something I go to when I really need to do some soul searching, when I need to feel close to my mom, or when I need to just feel nostalgic about the good old days before becoming an adult. I cannot ever just boot it out of my life. We have formed a bond that non-coffee drinkers just cannot begin to understand. So please...don't judge me...don't judge my latte...my espresso...or even my plain coffee. Don't give me your gagging symbol when I tell you I am craving a piping hot "Cup o' Joe" because Coffee is very close to me and you will be greatly offending all that I hold sacred.

;o)

Do You Know Coffee?

Well, I would love to claim to be this wonderful coffee connoisseur, but I am not. This Coffee Lingo Quiz proved me wrong. I had no idea what they were talking about. I only got 3-4 questions correct, and they told me I was a "Coffee No Go" who likes my coffee "plain" and doesn't need fancy foams....Sad....I like fancy foams....I just know nothing about them.

Do you love coffee? Maybe you love to read about coffee? Maybe I'm just desperately hoping I'm not alone out there, but you should all check out my blog friend Cosmo. He has undertaken the task of writing a coffee related post every day for the month of September. Go easy on him. Its a hard task to do, and he has done wonderfully! He may feel like just a regular guy, but his blogs bring a little bit of excitement to me. I would love to have the latte knowledge and experience he does. :)

Enjoy. I think I'm off to make a nice brew for myself.

Hey Cosmo!

I follow a blog called "Views from the Coffee House" written by Cosmo in Dublin, Ireland. I am jealous of him for two reasons: because he gets to frequent the coffee house with the best espresso in all of Dublin and...because he lives in Dublin...So sad for me. So of course, when I was at my local Borders bookstore last night visiting with a cherished friend, I immediately thought of my fellow blogger, Cosmo when I saw this book:

This bargain just happened to make the book affordable. I am very excited because I very rarely read non-fiction. Recently, I learned that I should expand my reading library if I truly want to be a writer, and I should include some non-fiction in my library, even though I want to be a fiction author. So, here it is, and I think it is going to be very endearing. I have already read the first chapter, and I can say I am hooked and am enjoying the writing style of one Michael Gates Gill.

In other, non-coffee related news, I must report that life is going well right now. My fiance is in and out of work this month with his job going on hiatus...I mean...trying to save money and therefore closing for short periods of time. However, we are surviving, and I am becoming more hopeful that this is only going to affect this month's bills. That is a bigger blessing than I could have asked for. I really thought our whole summer would be affected by this. Also, he is interviewing for a different job next week, and if we find that it will be worth the 20 minute drive, I may be able to pursue my writing and my Etsy store sooner than I had imagined.

I am also reading "The Purpose Driven Life" right now. I am enjoying the process, and I am eager to learn God's purpose for me. I have been in prayer about keeping my eagerness and growing closer to God as I try to gain back a relationship we once had. I can't tell you how much it would streamline my life to understand God's purpose for me. I was confirmed a member of my church this past weekend, and I am 20-years-old making that decision. The rest of the confirmands were between the ages of 11 and 16. That decision weighed heavily on my heart, so I do sort of believe it was too big of a decision for young kids to make. That is just one person's opinion, though.

I am happy that I decided to become a member of the church, though. I am not thrilled about being in a denominational church because I am a firm believer that I am a Christian. I believe in Jesus and I praise Him for his sacrifice that we may all live and love a forgiving God, but I do not agree with the different "denominational" rules. I really did enjoy the simplicity of a large group of people coming together to worship God when I was in a non-denominational church. However, I feel at home in this church, and I feel called to be here. My church is about to see some very hard times and make some very difficult decisions, and I am glad to be a part of that. I am praying I can be a voice and a light for change, as I believe that is something I am being called to this church for. God has a plan, and I am just trying to follow where He leads.

So, to all my prayer folk out there, please keep me in your prayers as I seek my purpose in God. If you want to pray specifically, please pray for my patience, peace, understanding, and eagerness to endure through this process. Also, I feel as though God is really trying to teach me about focus, so keep that in your prayers as well. I have used my lack of focus as a crutch and an excuse for a long time, but I am certainly at an age to be able to control that. I think God is telling me that it is time to take control of my thoughts.

If you would like to check out Cosmo's blog, by the way, and I certainly recommend it to anyone who delights in reading someone else's interesting and sometimes fleeting thoughts, follow this link.

http://regularlatte.blogspot.com/

I also want to mention that my cherished friend and I had gone our separate ways last night. She mentioned that she had to make her rounds about the store to make sure there wasn't anything else she "[didn't] need" (her exact words, not my own!) before she checked out with her book, the one that her nephew illustrated, to the left here. I went off to the restroom, as I had practically chugged a Chocolate Coffee Crunch JavaKula from the Seattle's Best cafe. We ended up at the check out late at exactly the same moment, and she was first. As she was checking out, I walked up close, completely unintentionally, and I realized she too had picked up the above mentioned Starbucks book. I gasped and pointed out that I had the very same book. As we laughed together, she said the ever famous saying, "Great minds..." Yet, as my fiance and I walked out, he jokingly chided that he had in fact considered slipping an a "Psychotic minds think alike." How about that? What is that all about? Psychotic? Please... ... ...

He just knows me too well. :)

Homemade Cinnamon Latte

I was getting bored sitting here at home, and normally when that happens, I Google. It is a terrible habit, I know. ;-) Anyway, I did find a recipe, and it turned out fantastic. I even used skim milk. It is amazing. I just saved myself four dollars and a load of extra fat! It is even frothy and wonderful!

If you are interested, here is the recipe:

Materials: 1/2 cup of strong coffee*

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp sugar**

1 1/3 cups of 1% lowfat milk

Instructions:1.Warm milk to near boiling in the microwave. In my microwave, this was about 2.5-3 minutes.

2. *To make strong coffee, I used 2 tablespoons of coffee per 6oz of water instead of 1 tablespoon. Adjust strength as desired.

3. Mix milk, coffee, cinnamon and sugar in a blender and blend for 30 seconds. This creates the foam. If you do not prefer foam, you could combine the milk, coffee, cinnamon and sugar in a 12-16 oz cup and stir.

**Instead of 1 1/2 tsp of sugar, I used three packets of Splenda. It came out to a little less than a tsp, but it is still plenty sweet.

If anyone tries it, I hope you love it as much as I do. If you would like to try a vanilla latte, replace the ground cinnamon with one tsp of vanilla extract. Enjoy!

P.S.

I Did have coffee today!! Watch out world!

Coffee and Biscotti

My coffee and biscotti are taking me to a very happy place right now. I put some CoffeeMate Pumpkin Spice creamer in my coffee this morning, actually about 20 minutes ago. Someone had placed some biscotti in our snacks behind the teller line, so I decided it was high time I tried some. I think it was supposed to be a carrot cake flavor. It was sooo yummy with my Pumpkin Spice coffee. However, today is really just turning out to be a blue day.



We got lots of snow last night, more than the flurries they were predicting. Last night, Big T went to hang out with a friend, but my car was dead after work because I left my lights on. It's times like that that I wish I had a new car instead of my 94' Olds. He was already out of town and couldn't jump it, and I didn't have any plans other than doing homework and budgeting. I just hitched a ride from a lady I worked with. Low and behold, when Big T went to start it, it started right up. I thought it loved me. I thought we shared a special bond. Big T is the one who hates it. Whatever...



I started to work on homework last night, even reading my chapter out loud, enthusiastically. After about four pages, even my enthusiastic voice couldn't make genetics interesting. We are learning about how babies are made in my Child Psych class, and I feel like I have heard about genes, genomes, zygotes, and chromosomes more times than any person should ever hear about them in their life. It just bores me to tears. I am much more an environmentalist than a biologist in terms of the nature-nurture controversy. That is not to say that I think nurture is solely in control of our behaviors, but it is my attempt at saying the nature half of the nature-nurture controversy bores the life out of me. I am interested in people's lives, not the blood coursing through them. This is why I am struggling with my Psychology major. I simply want to interact with people and learn about them without having any responsibility to understand their genetic predispositions. I don't like the science part.



Anyway, if you didn't catch on up there, I eventually got insanely distracted from doing my homework and ended up surfing the internet and listening to music. I was searching some of my favorite Christian female artists as well as some of my favorite non-Christian female artists, artists such as Barlowgirl, Superchick, Fly Leaf, and Paramore. I would turn the music on my computer up as loud as it would go and belt out with it. I'm sure my neighbors got an earful, but no one complained. A few of my neighbors are too old to hear me anyway.



As the night went on, the guilt grew, so I would take my book and notebook back in my lap and read a few more paragraphs until I felt like I couldn't stand it anymore. By the end of the night, I was wearing a full guilt suit and feeling all the affects of depression anxiety. When I laid down to go to bed, I started to think about my mom and all of a sudden, I had a rush of terrible memories from the day she died. I realized, I don't know if my brother rode in the ambulance with her or if he went with my sister. Also, I don't know who called my older brother, M. There were lapses in my memory because of the things I didn't know, and I felt very anxious about that. I wanted to know every detail because somehow I think that will help me to not hurt so bad every time I have these flashbacks. I wish I knew what was going through everyone's head as we all sat in the room some odd feet away from where our mother, daughter, and friend was dying. I wish I had gotten one last insightful conversation with her. Even though I did say goodbye, I don't feel that it was finalized because she never said it back. I feel like I am still hanging on to loose ends and I will never get the closure I need.



This morning, I laid in bed until 45 minutes before I had to be at work. I was emotionally exhausted, and my dreams last night did not help me at all. I really don't want to go into that, though. I got up and wet my hair down because I wasn't in the mood to take a shower. My poor hair has no curl, but it's not straight either. It is just body and fluff with some hairspray and a bobby pin to keep it out of my face. I have a stain on my shirt, which brings me down to three work shirts I can actually wear. I couldn't find my name tag in my purse where it was supposed to be, so I made a name tag for myself in case I would happen to get a mystery shopper. I wouldn't want to get marked off for something petty like not wearing my stupid name tag.



When I got to work, my boss said she needed to talk to us and that no one had done anything wrong. Her tone didn't exactly seem excited, though, so we knew something was wrong, even if we weren't in trouble. Well, when she did talk to us, she told us that two of the management positions in another banking center of ours had been eliminated, which means the two people that filled those positions were let go with no notice. They had both been there for quite awhile, but one woman had spent 43 years in this bank. Basically her whole working life was spent here, and they just let her go. Then they try to pull the wool over our eyes by saying that right now they have to make some tough decisions and that every decision is made with the benefit of the customer in mind. Well, not only do I work there, but I am a customer there, too. I don't see how sacrificing a woman's entire working career is going to help me as a customer. It's like they don't appreciate her at all, and I can't imagine how she feels if I feel this bad for her. My boss says she is not worried about our banking center because we are all part time and are not necessarily costing the bank enough money to employ that they would feel the need to eliminate any of our positions. If they can get rid of someone that put in so much more time than me without a care, though, I don't have high hopes for my future in this business. I just get so sick of them trying to cover their corrupt tails by saying it is all for the good of the customer when you know full well they are still pocketing all of their bonuses for the work they pretend to do. It's ridiculous.

So that is my day to thus point. I still don't have my tax money, which is very frustrating because my bills are already late. Big T got his refund in his bank account in nine days. It has been ten days so far for me, and tomorrow will be eleven. It better be here tomorrow, or there will be some IRS agents that will have a restraining order against me. Just get it done! ;) I hope the rest of you are having less sadness and anxiety than I am. Enjoy the up days.

Beautiful Awakening

This morning, a very beautiful thing happened to me.

As I am laying in bed around 7am, I start to awake to the wonderful aroma of coffee. I should have been out of bed half an hour before then, getting ready for work, but we all know that is unrealistic. :) Anyway, big T had already left for work about an hour and a half earlier, so I convince myself I'm nuts and just really want some coffee bad enough that I am dreaming I smell it. I try to go back to sleep, but as I roll over, I catch another whiff of that wonderful aroma. I just could not convince myself to be in bed any longer. I roll myself out of bed and shuffle my way to the kitchen, and what I saw made the angels in Heavan sing. There in front of my eyes was a pot of coffee already made! I have yet to thank Big T, but it could be topping the charts of the most romantic things he's done. haha You can all rest assured I've got a real manly man. :)