small luxuries

I'm the type of person who doesn't need flashy toys or expensive things to be happy. Earlier this semester, I had a class of juniors respond to a prompt for vocab practice about something that is seemingly insignificant but is rather vitally important. About 1/3 of them responded with---cell phones. Not me. I'm rather of the opinion that if I had a cool, flashy, does-everything-but-actually-make-the-brownies-for-me cell phone that I would get too caught up in it. Not that I'm against them, but it's just not where I want my chi to reside.

I'm all about the small luxuries. This is what I spend my fun money on--buying good, crunchy chocolate and soy based candles, sneaking away for a once-every-two years pedicure, and refilling my Starbucks card.

I didn't even drink coffee regularly until about 2 years ago. Other than the random super sweet mocha on special occasions, I rarely drank the black brew. And then I started grad school while working full-time, convincing myself that I would need to learn to drink the non-syrup laden stuff in order to stretch the hours in a day a little farther. (Really, I even bought myself a special watch with an alarm on it figuring that there would be many a night when I would need it to wake me up after I fell asleep out on the couch. For the record, not so much.) So I bought myself a coffee maker.

This was the perfect coffee maker for me. It made coffee quickly, one cup at a time, and it was on clearance so it was a relatively cheap investment of my fun money. But it broke, and I moved up to a french press.

But I still love my Starbucks card. There's just something super sinful to me about having the luxury to swing through my handily close Starbucks on the way to school, to walk in with a super gi-normous, trademark paper cup of hot goodness.

I love the weight of a full cup as it is handed to me. I love the smell of coffee and milk. I love the kinda hippy baristas and reiterate that this is one of my dream jobs. I love the laid back clientele who lounge with papers and chat with friends. I especially love the first few foamy sips.

It's not that I am solely in love with Starbucks. I mostly just love good coffee houses, and when in Kokomo, that means Starbucks--ubiquitous, iconic, and absolutely luxurious.

Higher Grounds, Coffee D'Vine, and Coffee Junkies--you all have a tender place in my latte-loving heart for introducing the varied joys of heavily sugared and flavored coffee.

loveys

My daughter is a bit strange in how she loves her loveys. Or, rather, what she chooses to be her loveys. And, likewise, how many she has. Really, she's a bit of a nutter when it comes to soft and cuddly things.

First, there's the famous (in our house) pink moo cow. This one, we actually have tried to get her attached to it because it's easy enough to take with us whenever we need her to sleep someplace strange. In actuality, this one she enjoys for brief moments of time but never really asks for it. We still force it on her. :-)

Abby carries around random articles of clothing for her preferred loveys...nutty. And almost embarrassing...think about dropping her off at the sitter and checking to make sure that she has her old shirt with her.

She dutifully obliged to show how much she loves it.

Sometimes (actually more often than not), she walks around double fisted. And this is the only way that I could get a picture of the pink onesie in her left hand as she would not let me wrest it from her grasp. That one is a size 24 mo. that I had on her shelf for next summer; how is she ever going to let me put it on her??

Another fav--a pair of leggings, size 3 mo. that I had set aside to put with other too small clothes to store. In fact, this was *the* lovey today. Since she has so many options, it varies day to day.

another piece thieved from the outgrown clothes pile

And she does love her cuddly animals, too. Like the super soft Harry the horse...

...and kitty, who oddly, doesn't have any name at all...

...and her Welsh sheep...

...and duckie...

...and Giggly the gorilla (Ben named it, don't mock *me*).

Then there is the first blankie (for when the other blankie is dirty, of course).


And BLANKIE!!! This one is a favorite every day.


Abby even loves her book about her lovey.

But, it's so wonderful to see her walking around with something soft and cuddly snuggled up under her chin. And then when she cuddles one (or four) of her loveys as we snuggle for a minute before bed or whatever, and she just lays her head on my shoulder and is so content with life, I feel all melty inside. And then it's okay that she fell in love with a tiny scrap of bright blue cloth because she's just happy with her little pants and we're just happy with her.

genius

I created such suspense with promise of a pictorial post soon to come, and then threw one of the key components in the dirty clothes basket. And I don't want to fish it out right now. It will be clean soon enough, and then the pictures will come as well.

On a funnier note, I flushed one of my favorite earrings down the toilet yesterday. That kind of summed up my day, too. Ah well.

mini photo album

The next post has been knocking around in my mind lately. It will be largely pictorial. Oh the suspense.

Right now, I'm in class. Oh the languor.