Gimme a Cup o' What??

This is going to seem like a strange post.  (I'm not bored.  Really!)

I'm not a coffee drinker.  Never have been.  I don't think I've had a whole cup of coffee in my entire life, although I've tried--just to be sociable.  I like the smell of the stuff because it reminds me of my parents and home, but I sure don't like the taste.  Still, I try to be accommodating to my dinner guests who DO like coffee.  I own a coffee maker which I drag down from the cupboard a couple of times a year when planning special dinners.  And I do keep coffee in the house.  (Usually in the freezer where, I'm told, it will stay fresher.)  The problem is that I don't know a good cup of coffee when I taste one, so I generally ask my more familiar guests to make a pot to their own specifications.  Not sure if that works or not, but no one complains.  (I notice that if I keep a bottle of Irish Cream Whiskey near the coffee pot, both coffee and Irish Cream get consumed faster than if I don't.)

I'm also aware that everyone's taste in coffee is different.  My parents liked strong coffee.  My sister's concoction was always weaker.  My parents had a dishware pattern that included a leaf at the bottom of the coffee cups.  If Shari were there, Dad could see the leaf at the bottom; otherwise, the leaf was invisible.  I think my biggest coffee laugh came one morning when the whole family was together.  My dad looked into his coffee cup and said, in his best Art Carney voice, "Hellooo, leaf!"  No question about who had made the coffee!

Every serious coffee drinker I've ever known prefers a mug to a cup-and-saucer.  Still, every dishware set that comes in boxes includes cups and saucers for the place settings.  Service for 8?  Eight cups and saucers.  Service for 12?  Twelve cups and saucers.  I have two sets of dishes.  My good china (99-piece service for 12) and my everyday dishes (service for 8).  Thus, I have all kinds of cups and saucers that almost never get used!  Know when they do get used?  Once a year at Easter when we are dying Easter eggs!  I guess that validates their existence. 

When I taught elementary school, every Christmas netted me at least two mugs from admiring students.  "World's Best Teacher."  "If You Can Read This, Thank a Teacher."  That kind of thing.  At one time, my cupboard was full-to-overflowing with mugs that didn't get used because of my inability to stomach much more than hot chocolate.  When Meg and the grandchildren moved in with me way back when, I weeded out the mugs and sent most of them to Goodwill in order to make room for sippie cups.  (Hey...have to have priorities!)  One that I saved was the one that my mother gave me when my husband and I were expecting our daughter.  It showed a mommy owl and a daddy owl on a branch, with a baby owl next to them.  The caption read "Congratulations."  I gave it to my daughter when she was expecting her firstborn.  My heart broke when the cup finally did, as things do.  It was just a cup, for Pete's sake.  (Who's Pete, by the way??)   But I think I kept at least four mugs.  (Still also have the stash of sippie cups.  We use them with straws now, but it does help keep down on living room spills....)

You know what's really goofy about all of this?  I usually keep a stack of white foam cups near the sink, and everyone just grabs those for their hot drinks of choice.  So what's the point of having mugs or cups-and-saucers?