cup o' joe.

it's monday! and it's back to reality for me... coming off a vacation is the worst, right? since it's monday and  we all need a pick me up i thought i'd share about one of my favorite daily pick me ups: coffee!


last week on my trip it hit me that in tennessee they have Dunkin' Donuts. it then struck me that my cousin, (whom was one of the reasons i was driving around 1,000 miles north crammed in a car with 4 of family members), totally works at a Dunkin' Donuts. pretty sure i yelled and squealed for a solid 10 minutes. (my sisters were not pleased with the volume of my squeal.) he supplied us with coffee and came home from work one night with left over dounts from the day; 2 whole dozens! 


now, i love coffee... i love crappy coffee, good coffee, slightly watered down coffee. i'm not much of a coffee snob, if i can get it i'll take it. well all except burnt coffee... that i will not take, i learned that yesterday morning on our final stretch home. so boo-hoo on the mcdonalds that poured my coffee yesterday, you suck.
i love Dunkin' Donuts for their iced coffee... i could take that stuff in a drip, but unfortunately for me Dunkins hasn't made it's way this far south. i think most people (especially those with a DD on every corner) might think it silly to have so much love for such a place, but it's mostly wrapped in nostalgia for me. in my early double digits age i can remember spending the night at my best friends house and her mom (who i remember always having a cup of coffee within arms reach) would take us down to the DD in my hometown and buy herself a cup of coffee and a donut for each of us. i remember that so fondly... i can still see the route we'd take, the smell of her car, and how groggy i felt on those saturday mornings. but i'd have woken up at 5am for that donut, the hardest part about those trips was picking which donut i wanted. [: at the time coffee wasn't anything i cared about, and now that i live so far from a DD it's like gold! fortunately i can buy the grounds at target or my local grocery store, so that's what i brew at home. maybe one day soon i'll have a DD around the corner.
i also love Stabucks (aka starbees, starbux, the bucks?) with my whole entire heart... over priced? maybe... but i'll gladly pay for the atmosphere, i love grabbing a good book or my mac and sitting for a couple hours. i like to pretend i live in boston, or new york city and its cold. i pretend i actually need the scarf wrapped around my neck while i sip on a hot latte. (this works sometimes, only until another person walks through the doors and i get a gust of hot texas air and dreams shatter.) i love making friends with the baristas... it seems silly, but chatting and smiling is the least i can do when their supplying me with my favorite beverage that 'keeps me alive'. i even have my favorite drinks i order according to the season:

in the fall: caramel apple spice
the winter: peppermint mocha or peppermint vanilla latte (the second is my newest favorite!)
the summer: iced vanilla latte or (for really hot days) sweet passion tea lemonade  


i try not to order them outside of their seasons because then they lose their magic. 


oh and the cups! the christmas cups are magical! i adore the christmas cups... i try and collect as many as i can before the seasons over. i get so giddy over these cups it's ridiculous, but it's one of my favorite things about the christmas season.
this year they had valentines cups as well and i made a whole big deal when i saw them; the barista probably thought i was nuts-o. it's the littlest things, ya know? [:


are you a coffee drinker? what's your favorite things to order at starbucks or dunkins? do you have a favorite local coffee joint? 


hope your monday is going well, enjoy your coffee. [:


Xx christine

me with my Dunkin's, 

my favorite green lady.