Like most people these days, my life was busy, full of chaos, and lots of running around doing things for people other than myself. Most mornings involved me getting up early, rushing to prepare my kids lunches for school, jumping in the shower, and putting my makeup on in the car on the way to drop off the kids. I would normally be stuck drinking my coffee on the way out the door and in the car.
I remember a time when I used to catch up with my friends in the morning at a local cafe and laugh, cry and talk about life. Those days were long gone. Life gets very busy when you have kids and work a senior job at an advertising firm.
One morning last week as I rushed out the door with the kids. My breakfast in my hands, my coffee held up against my chest as I carried papers… one of the kids ran into me and the coffee spilled all over my brand new suit. It wasn’t Josh’s fault - accidents happen, but I burst into tears, went back into the house to ask my husband to drop the kids off, and sat down in the kitchen and sobbed.
I called my boss up and told them I needed a day off, made myself another cup of coffee on my Keurig machine, and went back to bed but as I sat in bed drinking my coffee, I realized something… I hated the taste of the coffee I was drinking.
I no longer enjoyed coffee, but I also couldn’t live without it! Then I discovered this...
I HAD to have my morning coffee every day before work, but I had been too busy to even notice that I didn’t even like it anymore. How did my life come to this?...
Something I used to love had turned into a stimulant to keep me awake and not something I even enjoyed anymore. My life had become so busy and such a routine, that I had forgotten to take the time to care for myself.
I jumped on Instagram to take my mind off the horrible morning I had just been through and I saw a picture of my friend Jill… one of my best friends from high school. She was at the gym working out and looked so happy!
I started looking at more of her photos… she was always doing something fun even though she had 2 kids just like me. At the movies with friends… at the gym improving her health… experiencing fun holiday celebrations…
I decided to send her a message “I’ve just had the worst morning and I scrolled past your instagram feed… how do you manage to have it all?! I’m at my breaking point and don’t know what to do”
Within minutes she had replied… “Come over to my house and let’s talk!”
I got myself out of bed and headed over to her house… it had been too long. When I walked in the door she said “Oh dear, you look like you’ve had a hell of a morning!” I replied “it’s been a hell of a year!” and burst into tears as she gave me a hug.
She sat me down on the couch and said to me, “Just breathe. Sit right there and let me go grab you a coffee and a nice little snack. Everything will be ok!”
I sobbed and said, “Thank you so much.”
When she came back with a nice little cake and a hot mug of coffee… we started to talk and it truly felt so nice to take that time for myself and being able to just talk to a friend about life…
My mouth tingled with excitement as I sipped the coffee… I started to calm down a little.
We were busy talking about how she managed to juggle it all and how she hired a nanny to handle the mornings with the kids when that first sip of the coffee she had made me hit my mouth.
“What is this?” I asked her. “There’s no way you just made this at home!” I told her.
She smirked and looked at me then said “Ahhhh…I bet you’re still drinking those stale brands that came with your machine...” to which I replied, “of course I am… there’s nothing else which works with my machine!" she laughed.
“Come with me!” she said and we went into her kitchen.
Her machine was just like mine was… but her coffee simply didn’t taste the same. It tasted as though she had just been down to the local cafe and had a barista make her coffee for her. I actually asked her "Do you have a Barista hidden in your cupboard?!"
Then she showed me her K-Cups and said "I buy my coffee from Angelinos.com"
“What’s Angelino’s?” I asked her.
She replied, “the most amazing coffee company I found online. I bought an experience pack from them and it came with loads of flavors and now it automatically gets delivered to my door every month.”
“No way!” I said “So you never have to worry about running to the store?”
She replied, “Nope! It just turns up on my doorstep every month and I even let their care team suggest new coffee for me and they send it my way so quickly!”
“What have I been doing drinking that junk this entire time?!” I said out loud as I sighed. She reassured me, “Don’t worry. You won’t have to put up with that anymore!”
She was right. Why focus on the past when I can change things for the better. We talked for hours… sitting on that couch and at the end of the morning, I gave her the biggest hug and thanked her for listening.
I went straight back home and started to sort my life out.
When I got home, I looked up a local agency to help with the kids and made an inquiry. I signed up for a trial at the local gym which was just around the corner and then I decided to check out Angelino’s coffee.
I remembered that my friend had told me about an experience pack that she first bought, so I ordered one of those and set up a subscription to arrive every month and went about my day off sorting my life out.
It was about a week later than my coffee arrived. The nanny was in the middle of taking the kids to school and I had just gotten back from the gym.
I opened the box in the kitchen with my husband and he said “What’s that? Did you go to the apple store or something?” to which I laughed and said “No, that’s the new coffee I ordered.”
He said “That won't work with our Keurig machine. You can only use their pods” and I laughed and said “Sit right there. Let me show you!”
I made him a cup of Donut shop and made myself a French Vanilla then put it proudly in front of him. When he tasted it he said, “How did that cup of coffee come out of that old machine?!”
I smiled at him and said “The machine is awesome, we’ve just been drinking the wrong coffee” and as we sat there enjoying our amazing new blends he said to me…
“You know what?” and I replied “What’s that honey?” then he said something which I will never forget.
“Life's too short to drink bad coffee!” he told me and I just smiled and said “It sure is, honey!”
