Mug Shots

Question: What happens when you face the prospect of moving...to the other side of the world?

Answer: You realize how much stuff (some might say "crap" (mom...) but in the interest of being a child friendly blog, let's continue to say stuff!) you've accumulated over the years.

Through this process, I've come to the realization that we kind of have a "thing".

I know that some people collect magnets, postcards, pencils...why couldn't we be one of those people? Something smaller. Something more portable?

I really don't know how we got started.

I guess, once upon a time, we were newlyweds, we were young, he had hair, mine wasn't gray. We were carefree, child-free and going places. We would take weekend jaunts here and there, go places with friends and we always ended up coming back with a coffee mug from somewhere.

Back then, we drank coffee, but not near the copious amounts that we do now. Maybe it's because now we're older, he's balder, I'm grayer, not so carefree, definitely not child-free and well, we're going places, just long-term and not just for the weekend!

But this mug purchasing "thing" has multiplied to the point that a couple of years ago, I got rid of all of the "normal" mugs because we were overrun with "special" mugs.

Want to look inside my cabinet you say?

Okay, if you insist...

Maybe this is the mug that started it all. I'm sure we were leaving Longview, headed to Kansas and needed to remember our roots. As if getting college educations, each other and living there four years weren't enough!

You might be married to a pilot if you have mugs from various air shows, mugs that talk about being a pilot or mugs with airplanes, their history and their "specialities". Have I mentioned pilots are kind of geeky?

I happen to love geeks.

Then a few years ago, someone (pointed finger to me?) came up with a brilliant idea to paint daddy a mug for Father's Day...because we short on mugs?! Hardly.

It's one of his favs so I'm glad we did it. But because of the paint, hand-wash only.

B-r-i-l-l-i-a-n-t idea.

Old school design which he loves. Perfect amount every time which I love and it's used all the time. (It's actually dirty in this picture but you would never know because I'm not taking pics of the inside. Now you're wondering if the other ones are clean or dirty...thought so...)

Oh and it reminds me of when I did my first LIVE radio broadcast, so of course, buy a mug...seriously. It's out of control.

Then there are mugs that I buy just to drive the pilot crazy. As if he was ever really going to drink out of the crab mug...from a Girls Weekend...from Tybee Island!

So it became my "take to school" mug because the kids got a kick out of it. I took it home to wash it with actual soap and water...forgot it the next day and the kids flipped! They wanted me to bring the crab back! At least someone appreciated its uniqueness.

And on and on the tour could go... more airplane mugs (yes, there are more), the neon yellow Blue Bell mug, the USS Lexington mug...places we've been, things we've done. Kind of like walking down memory lane one sip at a time.

But for now, I'm banning mug buying. We'll have to figure out something smaller for the future.

I might turn into one of those magnet collectors after all.