Morning Coffee

I don't sleep in that much on the weekends. I'm usually up by 8:00 or 8:30 at the latest. But during the week I tend to wait until the last possible moment to get up and get ready for work. I'm not one of those people who gives themselves lots of extra time to watch the news, read the paper, or leisurely eat my breakfast. No, I much prefer the extra sleep. My usual routine looks something like this:

6:27am alarm goes off. I immediately get up, take a shower, do my hair, and get dressed (I usually decide what I'm going to wear the night before or while I'm in the shower which also helps me save time). I make my lunch (which is the same every day) and then eat a bowl of cereal while checking my email/google reader. I brush my teeth, pack up my bag, and am on my way to the metro by 7:15ish. This allows me to be at my desk at work a few minutes before 8am.

This routine does not, however, leave time for coffee. I like coffee. I like the way it tastes and I need that extra energy boost in the morning. But I do not like gulping it down as I'm running out the door. If I'm going to drink it, I want to take my time drinking it and actually enjoy it. For the first 4-5 months of my new job I would buy a cup of coffee from the cafeteria when I got to work and drink it while I checked my email and got settled in. This worked out pretty well-- the coffee was ok and it was only $1.09 (with tax). I felt like I could justify the $5.45 a week I spent getting my coffee fix (especially since I bring my lunch almost every day).

But then it all changed.

Our cafeteria switched management over the holidays and suddenly my morning coffee was no longer $1.09...it was a $1.69 BEFORE TAX. For the same size! The rationale was because they'd switched to a different, fair trade brand. I'm all about fair trade, but I no longer felt I could justify spending almost $2 a day on cafeteria coffee...especially when a small drip coffee at Starbucks was pretty much the exact same price.

But I didn't want to alter my routine too much. So I decided I'd start making my own coffee at home and bringing it to work. Which meant that I'd need a new travel mug-- one that was insulated and completely, 100% spill proof so that I could throw it in my bag in the morning and not have to carry it in my hands on the metro. I did some research and found what appeared to be the perfect solution:

The REI flip-top vacuum tumbler. It has a vaccum seal which means it won't spill and it keeps coffee hot for hours. Seriously. I've gotten side tracked a few times in the morning and come back and my coffee has still been practically burn your mouth hot (which is how I like it) 2 hours later. In short, it's awesome.

So now I get the coffee pot ready to go the night before and then flip the switch while I'm making my lunch. It's been the perfect (and more cost effective way) to enjoy my morning coffee.

Being Settled/Weeknight Routines

One of things I have enjoyed most about being a newlywed is that general feeling of calm and contentment that comes from being settled. To me this is most evident in our weeknights. Jason and I did not live together until we got married and our pre-wedding weeknights were full of uncertainty—who’s apartment we were going to hang out at, whether we were going to eat dinner together or meet up afterwards (and if we were going to eat dinner—what/where?), etc.  Even when we planned these things out ahead of time, things never felt truly comfortable (or dare I say…settled). It got old.

Once we got married we quickly settled into a weeknight routine, and the effortlessness of it all was one of the first things I think we both equally appreciated about being married. So what does our routine look like? Since I work from home and have no commute, I generally try to have dinner on the table when Jason gets home from work around 6:30-7 (and by that time we are both pretty much starving anyway).  Jason usually does the dishes (much to my relief since cleaning is one of the things I hate most in the world) and we settle in to watch the news (if it is still on) or (my personal favorite) Jeopardy. 

I LOVE Jeopardy. I pretty much kick its butt most nights too. I recently took the online test but I think I got too nervous (it was my first time) and choked. I am hoping one day I can go on and win us some money.

 

That, however, is where our common routine usually ends. We definitely have different “styles” when it comes to weeknights, and that has taken some getting used to.  Because I work from home and don’t interact with actual people on a regular basis (my interactions are limited to phone and email most of the time), I am usually really excited to have someone home to talk to or even just to physically be around. Jason, on the other hand, is usually ready for some “alone time” and wants to do his own thing. At first I took this personally, but now don’t really mind it (most of the time).

Unless there is something on the TV that we are both interested in (e.g., How I Met Your Mother, Modern Family, or 30 Rock), Jason usually heads to either 1) our bedroom (where his desk is also located) or 2) his green chair.  Jason did not bring much in the way of furniture to our relationship (thankfully—I already had plenty given that I’d lived alone for 4.5 years before we got married) but he did have a green chair and ottoman that we put into a corner of the living room that we turned into a reading nook.

Our reading nook and Jason's green chair

So while Jason is either reading or messing around on one of his computers, I usually spend the evening watching TV.  It’s bad I know, but I like to relax during the week and relaxing for me is doing something that doesn’t really require much in the way of brain power (Jeopardy aside). I like to read but that is something I usually do in the 30-40 minutes before I go to bed or on the weekend. 

Having a routine has its downfall though—it is easy to get in a rut. Things like Book Club help. As does making plans to meet up with friends for the occasional happy hour or dinner during the week. But more often than not, when Jason and I feel like our weeknights are hitting a rut we spice it up with….a game of Scrabble. That’s right, Scrabble. We are officially old, married, and boring. But at least we are settled!