The Meaning of the Sipping Tool

I'm tired of drinking from ugly mugs with stupid messages on them like "My Dad's the Greatest." Oops! That came out wrong. I feel odd drinking from it for the obvious reason that I am not a dad. It's an old mug and I assume my mom bought it for him. I wouldn't do such a thing. I mean, I love my dad and he is great (just to clarify that I'm not a monster daughter); I just find that stuff cheesy and meaningless.

There's another mug that has a picture of a female stick figure pulling her hair out. Above, it says "My kids are driving me crazy!" Really, Mom? I make a point of not drinking out of that mug. I'm serious. The dad one, I'll drink from.

Then there are corporate mugs that we obviously just have for the sake of having mugs. Just one of things you collect because you don't have to pay for it. Maybe they were given away as prizes or something, really to market the businesses (I figured this out, having studied public relations). For the longest time we had one that had a Toronto radio station logo on it. I'm assuming it broke because knowing my family we'd have no other reason to throw it away. It seemed odd to me because I didn't think any of us listened to that radio station. We also have mugs with the label of the newspaper my mom used to work for. That makes some sense to me: they must have been giving them away at her work. Maybe there were extras from the coffee room.

When I get my own place, I won't have mugs. Well maybe I'll just have one that says, "My mom is driving me crazy!" And when she comes over to visit I'll serve her a drink in it. Yes, I know I could get nice mugs, but I don't drink coffee. And I don't want to drink tea from a mug. I want cups and saucers! I drank from one once at a friend's and loved it. I loved feeling the thin rim between my lips, then hearing the click of the cup on the saucer after my sip. And it had a beautiful design on it. Definitely an antique, but I don't know if I want any of those. They're very expensive and I'd be too paranoid about it breaking!

I definitely want an old fashioned tea set, though. Just a new one. Maybe with a floral print? I won't go as far as making sure it matches the decor though. That's just weird. It would be a drastic move for a simple girl like me who has never painted her bedroom or bathroom she has had for 22 years!

Anytime I see a tea set in a magazine, on tv or in a store window, I smile hard and say "Aaaw!" Either out loud or in my head. It's more than just the aesthetic appeal. To me, a tea set of my own will symbolize my independence when I move out. The fantasy of drinking from the cups with my friends is the fantasy of doing things my way. Entertaining my friends whenever I want. I can see the Facebook event page now: "Tea Time at Ashley's!"

The tea party will be ruined if guests come who don't like tea. No! You have to drink from the set! That's what makes it special! (Sigh) I mean, I could make them drink water or milk from the tea cups. Or I could make up for forcing them by at least buying them some coffee and putting it into the tea cups. It might be cold by that point, though. Now I'm just obsessing. I won't force anyone to do anything. My non-tea drinking friends can sip coffee from wine glasses for all I care. Or they can drink wine from wine glasses. Hey, so can I! This is sounding better than my tea party idea...