Life as a coffee maker
There’s a new coffee machine at work that makes me laugh. It’s a big, boxy machine that is designed to create a single cup of coffee in about ten seconds. You can sense the urgency, the frantic message going through the coffee maker’s neural mechanism- Ah! I’ve got to make this coffee as fast as I possibly can! Quick! Quick! The coffee machine will likely have a heart attack before the year is out.
Little round plastic containers of coffee or tea come with this machine. You pull out the top of the machine and stick the container in the slot. Close the drawer and push the button. Pop! goes the machine as it madly punctures the container. Ssssss! The coffee frantically pours into the mug placed at the bottom. Chuck! the machine wildly tosses the container out of the slot and it goes into the internal back of the machine with all the other little containers. That is the point where I laugh, when I hear the Chuck! noise. I want to tell the coffee maker to relax, that it doesn’t have to be responsible for getting rid of the container in addition to its other duties. I could do that. But the machine is so overly wrought it cannot hear me.
Well, perhaps I am projecting my own stuff onto an automatic, mindless coffee maker. Things have been more stressful lately with one scenario after another at work and school and trying to plan a 20 hour a week, non-paying internship that will be a good enjoyable learning experience for the next school year and still allow me to work full time. When my energy is down, I feel pinned to the wall. When my energy is up (thanks to this highly pressured coffee maker) I feel ready to tackle it all and make good. On the domestic front I have been especially neglectful. I miss planning and cooking a real meal. I have not done a proper trip to the grocery store in weeks and weeks. The laundry piled up so much that the washer churned for an entire day when Steve undertook the task. I am lucky to have a guy who is willing to undertake 100% of the household stuff until I can get clear the pile of work facing me right now.
Feb 12th 2004Uncategorized