Daily Coffee Ritual

I don't drink coffee, but I make it everyday.  And the funny thing is, I don't mind doing it. I enjoy it.  But I really don't like, ok, I hate, coffee.  I'm a tea drinker.  

So how did my life get to an activity that I would never do for myself, but I gladly do every day for someone else?   I've thought for many years on this topic and it really is the story of how we all relate to others in lives, make sacrifices-that are (Elton John) No Sacrifice At All, and conduct our daily lives.  

My life, and I know I'm not alone, has its routines.  Before I was married my morning routine never included making coffee.  It also didn't include making breakfast or typing on a computer or getting morning food for the dogs.  I am an early morning person; particularly annoying when you are married to a night person, but more on that in another blog.  I wake up between 4 and 5 am every morning.  I start my morning turning on the television, checking email, which there is really not much that has come through since I checked before going to bed, and reading morning news, not that anything has happened over night, but I do it anyway.  I love this morning time, by myself, relaxing, just before the dogs figure out I'm awake and they can go outside and get their morning grub from me.   At 6:30 am I rise from the chair, turn up the TV so I can hear it in the other room and begin the coffee ritual.  

It was my second husband who taught me how to run a coffeemaker.  I found them quite daunting and since I don't drink coffee, how would I know it wasn't too weak or too strong?  And then there was the parts...like looking at the engine of a car. Ok, maybe not as complicated as that, but why learn it, anyway?  I was in my late 20s when I made my first cup of coffee, for my 2nd husband, using the scary coffeemaker.  He needed my help after injuring his arm and REALLY needed his cup of morning coffee.  Coffee drinkers are funny that way.  They are pretty grumpy without their cup of coffee and it's in MY best interest to not deal with a grumpy husband.  So I happily made that first cup of coffee for him.  He guided me through the process:  open the coffee filter cup, insert the coffee filter, add the coffee grounds, close the filter cup, take the coffee decanter and fill it with water, open the top of the coffeemaker and pour in the water, insert the coffee decanter and push the button.  Magic.  Hot Coffee.  Oh, and he drank it pretty black-no adding sugars or creamers to his coffee.  That made it easy.  And, voila, happy husband.  This is what makes a married life.  

I hadn't thought that it would become a daily ritual for me.  I think those start off in spurts going from once a week to twice a week to, well, you can see how this progresses.  "Honey, can you bring me a cup of coffee?"  "Sure, be right back."  And before you know it you are doing it because it's not that hard and it makes your lover happy.  

He tried to get me to like it too.  Once he took me to a coffee shop and ordered me chocolate coffee.  Something so sweet and delicious you weren't supposed to taste the coffee.  Then there was the caramel coffee, I love caramel, but alas, I couldn't get past the coffee taste.  I can't even eat Tiramusu.  I know, it's bad.  I’m just not a coffee lover, although I respect coffee drinkers and the pleasure they receive from it.

Coffee drinkers are even more pronounced in the workplace.  When I worked at Washington Mutual Bank I had to make coffee a couple of times a week.  It can be difficult to work with a coworker who hasn’t had enough coffee yet.    Although I didn’t make it in the office because I wanted to, I made it because I was told to make it as part of my job.  Personally, in the workplace, I think people should make their own coffee.  I don’t like being blamed for bad coffee when I’m not a person who understands good or bad coffee. 

Now I work from home so the one I please is my husband.  And he’s pretty easy.  It really is No Sacrifice.