GENTRY — Just maybe, I have become a chocoholic.
It all started a while back during a period when I was going through a stressful time. I made the mistake of keeping a bag of Dove chocolates hidden in my desk drawer so I could sneak a bite to calm me whenever I needed it. It became a habit and now I can’t seem to resist the urge to have chocolate on hand at all times.
On a good day, I can go a few hours without chocolate, but there are other days when my snack drawer is hit multiple times. I have been trying to decide exactly what, if anything, I should do about this situation. I know I could quit, but I don’t really want to. Still, I wonder if this habit has gotten out of hand.
To find answers, I turned to a skeptically trusted friend - my computer. I entered, “How is eating chocolate good for me?” in the Google search bar. Low and behold, I found pages of information that made chocolate sound like a health food. Of course I had heard those who tried to claim that chocolate counts as a vegetable because it comes from beans of a cocoa plant, but what I found sounded much more authentic than that.
I had every intention of sharing this liberating news with my readers so we could all indulge in good conscience, but thinking about my favorite snack remindedme of something else - a birthday gift I got from my friend, Lynn, which in turn made me think coffee mugs. Yes, my mind is wandering, but hold tight. It all ties back together eventually, if somewhat loosely.
Over the years I have collected an assortment of coffee mugs. Most of them were bought as souvenirs from places I traveled and, as intended when purchased, have never been used for more than display. After several years, I decided I didn’t want to take up space in my home for a mug collection anymore and switched my souvenir focus to something smaller and more manageable, refrigerator magnets.
Even though I have discontinued my collection of souvenir mugs, I am constantly on the lookout for good, everyday coffee mugs. At our house we have long abandoned the small, thin cups that came in the set with our dishes. Other than matching the plates, saucers and bowls, they had nothing else going for them. They were too light weight, not thick enough to keep coffee hot for long, and the handles weren’t comfortable. I don’t remember what we did with them exactly, but they have been replaced with a hodgepodge of more functional mugs, a mismatched assortment but each with characteristics that make them more preferable choices.
When it comes to coffee,I like to drink it hot and I want it to stay hot from the time I take the first sip until the last drop is downed. It takes the right mug to make this possible. It needs to be thick enough to hold in the heat, as well as being the correct size. Some are so large that it is impossible to finish the drink before it cools. These are best saved for soup. On the other hand, those short, thick, stoneware mugs are great in truck stop restaurants where an attentive waitress swoops by to refill it every little bit, but they are too small to use at home where I have to make multiple trips to the coffee pot to wait on myself.
I have a couple of favorite mugs that I reach for anytime they are not in the dishwasher. One is the gift mentioned above and it works very well. It holds just the right amount, is a goodweight and my fingers fit perfectly in the handle. It is both pretty and functional and has a nice message about special things printed on the side.
“We will be friends until the end of time ... Then we’ll hang out at each other’s mansions and what not ... splash around in the chocolate fountain … you know ... Heaven stuff,” it says.
I don’t know if chocolate fountains will really be part of the hereafter, but it is a nice thought. I don’t plan to give up my little bites of heaven on earth anytime soon.
Annette Rowe is a freelance writer from rural Gentry and a speech-language pathologist at Siloam Springs High School. She may be reached by email at [email protected].
Opinion, Pages 6 on 04/25/2012