I pulled it out and filled it with coffee.
I bought this mug when I moved into my very first apartment alone. Originally, there were two with different colored flowers. I can't remember what happened to the other one. This mug has pink and gray irises with yellow centers. Instead of round, the cup is octagonal. As I drink my coffee or tea, I can trace each corner.
This cup evokes a feeling of beginning in me. I can't remember buying it and its mate, but I know I moved to Florida without much furniture after graduate school. Mom gave me some pots and pans along with dishes. I took the rattan table and chairs that might have been in our basement at home. I bought a lot of furniture at garage sales or flea markets. My co-worker sold me a couch -- nubbly and flecked with different colored threads.
Having my own place felt so grown up, even if I lived in one of those 1970s, sprawling apartment complexes.
I can't imagine that anything else in this house came from that long ago apartment. So, this morning, I took down the mug and drank from it. Maybe my hand will soak in that feeling that I had when I held the mug long ago, when all I had to worry about was meeting deadlines and where we would eat lunch. The apartment where I lived when I fell in love with my husband. I suppose I felt my life was full of angst then, dating and friends and all-consuming journalism. Maybe each stage we look back on seems not so stressful and a little bit sentimental.
Do you have a favorite cup? Piece of furniture? Something that connects you to another, long-past life?
4 comments:
There is a tv my husband bought on my credit card when we were dating in the spare room of my house where my mom usually stays in when she's visiting, she asked if she could buy it off me. I said "no way". It has sentimental value.
I have some things from my first marriage. I don't get warm feelings using them but, you're right, it does take you back to what was going on when they were new.
Its funny that the things I didn't intentionally save have the most sentimental meanings. Two plates that remain from the original set we purchased from Gold Circle (for around $20)when we got married. You can't even put them in the microwave. smile.
Versus all of the coffee mugs I've collected from all over. I adore coffee mugs but the meaning is different.
Lucia, We have a beat up rug that my husband and I bought before we got married. It's in the garage because we can't bear to get rid of it.
Linda, I imagine your husband has even less warm feelings about the things from your previous marriage. We still have a few odd dishes left from when Earl was engaged and his mom bought him and his fiance dishes from the local grocery story, one at a time -- color: oatmeal and beige, real eye openers.
Friend Anonymous: Gold Circle. I remember Gold Circle. Good thing you know not to put them in the microwave!
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