a tinge of green
i recently read a little factoid mentioning the billions of wasteful items that come from the american morning coffee addiction: Each year, Americans throw away 138 billion straws and stirrers, 110 billion cups and 58 billion plastic utensils. so i decided to reduce my own carbon imprint on the world by a) using my own cup (despite the fact that we have nothing resembling a sink anywhere near our office, and thus have to resort to creative sanitizing), and b) pouring my cream and sugar in before the coffee to eliminate the need to stir it. a simple idea of convection, a harder habit to instill. the first day i thought to do this, i sleepwalked my way through pouring in the coffee, and then heading over to the fixin's to dress it up... all the time TALKING about my new outlook on coffee preparation. it wasn't until the last grain of splenda hit the cup that i realized the intent was there, but the practice... not so much. so i went back to my desk, doodled a reminder, and stuck it on my cup (it says "consider your footprint"). the next day, as i trekked towards the moment of truth, i reminded myself "cream & sugar first. cream & sugar FIRST." i proudly passed the canteens of coffee and poured half'n'half straight into the cup, followed by a small yellow packet or 2 of sweetness, and headed to the finishing "mixer" of coffee...
right concept, wrong proportions. i ended up with coffee flavored cream (as opposed to cream-flavored coffee), my mixture being almost white and sadly reminding me of the most horrendous date of my life ("hmm, it doesn't taste like milk..." "that's because it's half'n'half!!") which i won't go into here to protect the cuddler and my own sanity.
so i have a new quest to learn my ratios. it's fun learning new things about yourself, and lessening your carbon footprint on the world along the way!
current mood: think green... or else!