Coffee or Tea

I'm not having issues but I'm having issues. With me progressively on the previously mentioned mend, there's a lot of adjustments to be made and more so with my stomach. Living out west, I've grown up and enjoy chile and just spicy food in general. Those are easy to say that I need to calm down on the hot sauce and salsa, but when I was having my morning coffee after coming home from the hospital, it was tragic. My stomach was not liking it for some reason but it yelled and hurt until I was in the bathroom.

Now I'm not a complete coffee snob. I have a Keurig and a french press, but I've been at home where it's a standard coffee pot with Dunkin Donuts coffee or Folgers or 8 O'clock Coffee from the local Dollar General and all is still well with the world. And no, I don't drink it black because I enjoy flavored creamer and DUH. I love the smell and enjoy the taste in the mornings.

It's been a staple in my life for a while I believe, mainly, because of my grandparents. My grandpa started me on coffee at a young age with cookies. He's used the same cups for coffee for as long as I can remember and starts a pot anytime we walk through the door. Not too strong and not too light with a few cubes of sugar with creamer and we are set for a good couple hours of chatting.

Because Google knows how we roll

Tea is a whole different story because there are two categories, hot tea and iced tea. Iced tea is not iced tea with out a proper southern amount of sugar.I didn't get into drinking hot tea casually until college with the help of a few of my friends. We dubbed ourselves las señoras. (hey!) And we'd have tea at someone's house, the theatre, Chinese restaurant, etc. But of course after college, people grow and move and I'm glad we still keep in touch. (We needs the chisme every now and then and don't get us started on the Selena movie and award season.)

I love Chamomile or like I've mentioned in my remedies post, Manzanilla. It's a great relaxer for  me so I can't really drink it in the morning to wake up and get the warm fuzzies. I've tried a couple teas, Earl Grey was a bit much at least by itself and I found Breakfast Tea was not my cup of tea.

I know people put honey or cream or milk but I don't know what goes where. Where does the line draw? For strong coffee, I know to use the powdered creamer instead of liquid. Don't use a flavored creamer when you have already flavored coffee.

WHERE ARE THE RULES FOR TEA?!?!?!?!

There's so many varieties and they have different things and some don't have caffeine, and yes I need caffeine. There's a thing called loose leaf tea. Is it better than tea that's bagged? How much do you use? How long does it need to steep? What are the requirements to add honey, milk, or creamer? Is that even a thing?

With all of this said, the hunt is on for my cup of tea because it's terrifying to think that the coffee deprivation may be permanent, but my mornings are empty and void of the wonderful, slightly bitter, taste of one of the miracles of life that made my morning routine. Trust me, I need a routine. So any tips or teas to try or tea recipes are greatly appreciated in the mean time. :]

It's Ok to Getaway

Bad skyline of El Paso, Tx

Life gets ya down sometimes. I don’t have to tell you that because Lord knows it can be draining. And sometimes when you suck it up and endure it day after day until weeks become months, you feel like you don’t have much less to give. That’s where I’d been and it had really taken its toll. I was sick with different things at the same time before I had enough and said that I needed a break from life and some home remedies, read about that here. And it came at a perfect time because my bff had an escape route of sorts.

On the road back home

He had a cousin who was getting married and it was going to be good times. And for some unknown reason I hadn’t met this part of the family before but with him being a professional photographer, there was some requests made for a few photos. I’ve also been wanting to improve my photography in general, and especially for the blog, so we had a whole 4 days set to have fun with his family, unofficially shoot a wedding in parts and the area to get me reacquainted with my Nikon and run around the city of El Paso, TX. This needed me to get a couple days off work and normally I’m a bit leery when it comes to taking days because my official vacation isn’t until October, and you’ll see that later later, but I needed a break from life and so did le bff.

Yup I fed that one and I was more stoked that the kids

A total of four days without phones ringing and professionalism and I only needed time off for two. It was great! We literally drove around the city because I know that I also have some family down in the area but they are a bit more distant and I haven’t seen them in roughly ten years so I couldn’t even tell you their names. But I got to see a lot of the parts that most people don’t think of when you think of Old El Paso and it was gorgeous. The dynamics in the city are great. We ate at restaurants and bistros we’d never heard of as well as some amazing home cooking from his aunt. And went to the zoo where I got to feed the giraffes and it was AMAZING! Sadly I still need some work on the dslr settings to get some decent photos so you have to suffer with the not greatest in-the-moment cell pictures. Sorry, but yea.

Beautiful Mocha from Dlox 

So I’ve decided that mini vacations are a definite need in my life. You can only go and go and go for so long before you really get burned out. So I wanna say to the workaholics and to myself that it’s ok to need a day or two off for your physical and mental sanity. I applaud the people who have their routines set for everything. I wish and want to be that structured in my life but right now, there are days where I’m hanging by a thread. Now I’m thinking about doing some planning and see how I can fit in maybe a stay-cation. 

Fairy Garden at a nursery we went to just because

5 Things You Need If You’re Running Late

I know I’ve had my fair share of late mornings for various reasons including my own procrastination of the inevitable, so I’ve just about perfected my routine for such a morning. When running short on time, logic is your friend. I’ve been lucky enough to have some go to outfits for work or something planned either the night before or if I’m not particularly feeling it, then it’s best to stick to some basics.

1.     Coffee – it’s bad enough to wake up late or get out of the shower later than intended, so it’s better for the sake of everyone involved that if anything, you need your dose of caffeine. If your coffee pot has an auto start setting, then you’re ahead of the game. I have a Keurig, and it’s my life. I turn it on first thing in the morning and it stays on for an hour, just flip the switch, grab my k cup and a travel cup with a lid. Prefill my creamer and Truvia and let it set while I go wash up. Now I just have to get ready and make my coffee before it turns off

2.       Makeup – With my job, I normally have to be there about a half hour before opening. Why? I’m not sure because it literally takes me about 5-ish minutes to get set up for the day. So I have some travel makeup in my tank, aka my purse. I wrote about it some time back, so read ya some here about what I have in it. If I have a few minutes, I may start my makeup at home but I have no problem nor shame putting it on at work

3.       Perfume or Body spray – For days like this, I feel that when you smell good thought is put into your appearance regardless of how long it took you to get dressed. Also for this reason, I absolutely love travel size perfumes, thank you Birchbox, and sprays from Bath and Body Works. They fit in your purse, your desk, the console of your car or glove compartment. There is no excuse to not smell good.

 

4.       Scarf or staple accessory – On late days, when I don’t know what to wear or can’t decide, there’s a switch in my head to go with the basics like I mentioned at the beginning. For me this includes: some black slacks and a black blouse. To break up all the black, that’s when I grab for a vibrant scarf. I’m a total scarf addict and I feel like it’s easier to pick an accessory that’s dramatic and makes me smile in any weather when I just have to go by color(s). For me it’s a scarf, for someone else, it could be a statement necklace, whatever you have as a go to, go for it in less than 2 minutes.

5.       Bobby Pins – any girl knows that life isn’t complete without bobby pins. Pinterest gave me the best hack for carrying bobby pins in an empty pill bottle. There could be a few or a lot but it beats trying to find the 3 that you had in your hair last night because they tend to disappear like socks in the dryer.

So what you’ll do is:

·         start the coffee

·         go wash up (washing your face and brushing your teeth) get dressed and brush your hair

·         If time permits and if you can put foundation on in less than five minutes, put on your base

·         Make sure that your emergency makeup bag, perfume/spray, and bobby pins are in your purse

·         Grab a scarf and throw it over your head as you grab your already made coffee and you’re ready to run out the door.

This way if your make it to work even a few minutes early, just go straight to the bathroom and finish the makeup and pin your hair.