2021-09-22
The Third Cup

THE THIRD CUP

So, I woke up this morning at 4 AM, got up and composed my to do list for today. I thought that would lull me back to sleep, as it’s usually not a problem.

However, Mom (Delia) is here visiting from San Jose, California, and as usual I love for her to cook and love for others to likewise get to know her cooking, so I decided to host a casual Mexican dinner for twenty tonight…

Mom and I are making Mexican rice, frijoles de la olla (pinto bean soup), a spicy bean and vegetable salad and chicken molé. And, as usual, I like our gatherings to feel special - magical really - so I started rummaging through all the ideas I’ve conjured to make that happen.

By 4:40 AM I had completed my list. Yet, I wasn’t feeling tired… so I laid down, thinking I’d fall back asleep soon enough. Alas or rather fortunately? it didn’t happen.

So, at 5:30 I got up thinking I’ll just take a siesta later and I might as well start making preparations: cutting up three pineapples, making a giant bowl of spicy Mexican salad, and making the kids lunch. I also had a nice cup of coffee, while giving the quackers (ducks) some more water, letting the dogs out, and eventually releasing the hens into the coop too.

As I was brushing my teeth after my second cup of coffee, I felt rather happy that I had already put a good dent into the to do list by 6:55 AM.

And then, suddenly, as the sun rose to the right of me, it dawned on me why I was so wide awake and roaring to go - it wasn’t the excitement and anxiety about all I had to do; it wasn’t that I had a good five hours of sleep; and it wasn’t the two cups of Joe I had already - it was THE THIRD CUP…which was actually the first cup that I had casually and carelessly downed at 10 PM, as I sat down to read a few pages before bed.

I had found it on my nightstand, a cold cup of espresso I had forgotten about from yesterday morning, which I could not resist. That said, by 10:30 my eyes were shutting down for the night and hanging up the CLOSED sign.

Ultimately, it worked out, because once again I seized the day before sunrise at Hacienda Dominguez & Chelenzo Farms in The Land of Enchantment, where Semper Mañana is the motto for many.