not-so-sticky

The proprietor of Hudson Coffee Traders is awesome, indeed! He kindly acquiesced to my demands for a larger 'Alex' sized cup of coffee! One evening, an anonymous comment was posted on my former blog - Day 188 - simply asking, "What size would give you the caffeine boost you need?" I called Kyrce on the phone almost immediately. "What size do you think would make the 'perfect' size coffee cup? Ideally? What did they used to have at the Citgo before it shut down?" This was very important. Just recently, I had ingested the largest size cup available at Hudson Coffee Traders by the time we hit New Paltz on our commute to USR. Two stops on the way to work wouldn't work, if we were ever to be on time! Kyrce is great because I can call her and ask her stupid things and she doesn't suggest they are stupid. We discussed various coffee sizes available at various vendors and settled on 20 ounces. 20 ounces is the perfect sized cup to get you from Hud...

It was pure laziness that I brought 2 rolls of black and white 35 mm film to Walgreens for processing. I had Dad, Lil, and Liam in tow and didn't feel ambitious enough to go to the Artcraft , which is sad since this store is walking distance from Walgreens... I could have waited altogether...but I had been holding onto these two film canisters for a few weeks now. They had made several journeys back and forth in my laptop bag to USR and around again and I was afraid if I didn't drop them off soon, they'd end up lost entirely. And I have good reasons to support this fear. In the last 24 hours, I have misplaced both my digital camera and my cell phone. In the past month, I have misplaced both of these items countless times - along with my ATM card, my wallet, and my keys. Last night, I pulled the cushions off the couch. I found many odd things, but none of these things were either the camera or the phone. Lil was standing by, excitedly announcing each 'find'. I unco...

A friend of mine (not Kyrce) recently left her laptop at work and had to go back to work to fetch it. She was ashamed she had forgotten this, though she shouldn't have been. Only a couple of weeks earlier , she was also the same person who reminded me that I was 'human' not 'stupid' when I sought help from her with my head hanging low when I had forgotten to track time against all of the projects I'd been working by the deadline. Nor did forgetting the laptop actually surprise me, either. I know several who have done the same thing (though it's usually the other way around); I think this happens far more frequently than one would realize. I don't think there is any shame in this, although I completely understand the frustration she must have felt - particularly so since she didn't remember until she had already made the hour commute and had to promptly turn around to do it all over again. In the super, fast-paced lives we have created for ourselves, ...

Even now, Dad tries to hide the issues with his memory. It's embarrassing to him and I think it was for a long time before anyone could identify a 'problem' with Dad. In some ways, Dad is still very clever so it's hard to tell when he's kidding and when he isn't. And I think because of this, I am uncertain the problems with Dad's memory really began. A couple of Friday afternoons ago, Kyrce and I wandered Uptown to Hudson Coffee Traders with Dad to meet an old friend of ours we hadn't seen in a year. No one was around to keep an eye on Dad so I decided to bring him with me. I thought he might enjoy tagging along and getting out of the house for a bit. Dad was truly in rare form on this afternoon. I don't think any of us could get a sentence out without Dad interrupting. When I asked him to please not interrupt, he insisted that if he didn't interrupt, we'd never let him get a sentence in! Disgusted with us trying to quiet him, he decided he...

Kudos to Dana for going out on Saturday and Sunday, especially to fetch me coffee from the new place Uptown with the French-pressed coffee. I don't say much good about him here, so I should give him credit for this. :) The problem came up over the weekend, actually. Quite a dilemma, really. The large cup of coffee at Hudson Coffee Traders is not large enough. Initially, I thought I could overlook this. But I realized over the weekend that I pretty much run on coffee. I like to see how many days I can go by without eating and without sleeping, just running on coffee. ( That may be how I recently ended up very ill... ) It's a bit much to ask Dana to fetch me two coffees...that seems excessive. Though he did bring two home to me on Sunday, and I didn't even have to ask. I guess he could see the desperation in my eyes. Today, it was another problem for the commute. I had to order 2 cups of coffee just to get me to the office. Totally absurd? Totally necessary. Especially on a r...

A moment ago, I walked into the house and was struck by its awesome silence. It actually seemed peaceful. The curtains were breathing in and out against the screen as the ceiling fans quietly whirred. Not one footstep could be detected and that horrid box in the living room, often blaring mindlessly away, sat silent. Better yet, I held a hot cup of French-pressed coffee and a cranberry-orange muffin from the new place in Uptown Kingston - Hudson Coffee Traders. They serve coffee from Counter Culture . This may be the best coffee I have ever consumed in my entire life. This has eased my distress over losing the Green Mountain blueberry coffee from the suddenly-closed Citgo. (That's a whole other story...) I checked Dad's spot on the couch and found him absent. Dana and the kids were out already. Seth is on summer vacation, so he was sleeping in. I'm a bit jealous of that. But this is nice. I'm sitting in my house, with a cup of blessed coffee, and it is both quiet and p...

This morning we were wrangling kids early, trying to get the kids ready for the Farmer's Market in Uptown Kingston. Dana, Lily, Liam and I were wandering around the bedroom, passing each other in circles, as we tried to pull ourselves together. I was looking for my missing Teva; the kids only ever move one on me...Dana was rifling through his top dresser drawer, searching for I don't know what? Lil was tucking her Tigger into bed and Liam was looking for a button to push. Liam doesn't have a chance with Lil around. She will tell on him at every opportunity. Neither Dana nor I had noticed that Liam had gotten a hold of Dana's cell phone and was busily pushing buttons. He's an avid button pusher. It's irresistible to him. He didn't have long to push buttons, though, before Lil blew his cover. From the other side of the bedroom, she yelled, " Quick! Get him! He's calling the cops! " Not something I expected to hear my not-quite-three year old dau...