The Musings of a Latte Queen: Narratives of Everyday Life

 I am a creature of habit. Like you could set your clock by me. Early riser who washes up, goes to the kitchen, starts the water for coffee, grinds the coffee beans, sets the milk so it can froth, cuts up fruit or makes toast or sets up yogurt, finishes the coffee - usually a French Press or a pour over, finishes the set up, sits quietly at the dining table or if warm, outside to have a morning respite. Morning respite includes time in the writings, meditation, prayer, and sometimes, just staring off into space as a contemplative. I wash the dishes, tidy up the space, shower and get started for my day. My day can depend on what is happening. When I was in my residency, my morning routine was often truncated because I had to drive to the hospital for mandatory 8am morning meetings. I was always a bit off if I hadn't risen by 5am so that I could have an hour of renewal before seeing what the day would unfold. The evenings are also a bit of creature-of-habit routine of me coming home,...

 I was all starry eyed with a glittering gleam in my eye when I was visiting my former pastor.   My then-man friend (can one call a man a boyfriend?) gave me his Mercedes-Benz to drive a few states over to visit some former friends.  That still baffles me, sometimes, that he gave me his luxury car to drive around. He actually had two and gave me the better of the two to go and visit. It was me and my sons on this visit. A bit of context, by the time I was that ripe-old-age-of-barely-thirty, I had already lived through the darkest days of my life, had already been married-and-divorced, had juggled the disappointment and shame that society heaped upon women (and all before social media made our every move ubiquitous with content), and was in a rebuilding my dreams stage of life. Back then, I was considered old, funny looking at it now, my children - all adults - are still figuring out their lives at the ages when I was responsible for someone else. Anyway, back before camer...