vanilla iced coffee

I think it's time to retire this blog.

I realize, first of all, that I haven't written in quite some time, so I'm sure most of you have stopped reading it by now anyway.

But for anyone still checking in, I figure I owe you a proper farewell.

When I started this blog, I was facing my first encounters with the real world -- getting my own place and living alone, supporting myself with one, two, three...however many jobs I sometimes worked at a time, dealing with the aches of letting some relationships go, while finding comfort in the ones that held true and withstood the transition from college years to "20-something" years. And even finding new friendships! I paid off my car. I got a dog. I cleared a lot of "adulthood" hurdles, while struggling with that nagging feeling that I was still just a kid.

And somewhere along the way, I think I found the answer to the question that started this blog.

I don't think I'll ever like coffee. Black, that is.

But I have found a lot of other coffe-ish drinks that I like. Of course, I had to start with the gas-station variety, full-of-sugar cappuccinos, but I eventually branched out to mochas and finally vanilla iced coffee. (Does this sound like something from Best in Show or what?)

The reason I'm sharing my caffeine progression is to illustrate the point that I think over the last few years I've gradually found my own way to be a grown-up. And it's not the same as my parents or my sisters or even a lot of my friends.

I think up until my twenties, I imagined adulthood as black coffee, morning newspapers, and marriage and kids. That's my parents' version of adulthood. And I think that I was worried I wouldn't like being a grown-up just like I didn't think I'd ever like coffee.

But my version of adulthood is vanilla iced coffee. It's producing a morning newscast and sleeping all day, and being single for an indefinite amount of time (by choice, I might add) and doing civic theatre shows in my spare time.

Now that I think of it, I might have been asking the wrong question all along. It's not so much whether or not you like coffee...it's really about how you take it. You can make it however you'd like to; add whatever ingredients, flavors, and sweeteners you want.

For me, a shot of vanilla, a scoop of ice, and a straw, please. And maybe a little whipped cream on top.

Thanks for reading.

The End.