Salted Mornings, etc.

Let's talk about mornings. Are they anyone's favorite part of the day? I realized when I wrote those words that yes, actually, there are "morning people" in the world. I've heard of them. But I don't want to dwell on "those people" right now, because I want to talk about how mornings are really hard and I want to feel like everyone agrees.

For example, I drank salty, salty milk today. 

Let me give you some background on that. Chocolate milk is my morning drink of choice (even though let's face it, coffee probably should be for various caffeinated reasons, but I have decided to choose to not drink coffee). For some reason, most of my days start with chocolate milk and it has just been that way for years now. I blame it on those dance team days when breakfast before my daily 5:30am practice was a laughable thought, but I needed to put something in my stomach. I guess it seemed like the most substantial drink I could make and get out the door without actually getting into the world of blenders and effort. And now I'm a conditioned chocolate milk feen. 

Chocolate milk requires Hershey's Syrup, which we are out of, which requires a trip to the store, which winter has made irrationally difficult and hard-sounding in my mind. So, (judge me here, all you green smoothie makers of the world) for the last two mornings I've resorted to stealing cocoa powder from my baking cupboard, tossing in some sugar, stirring it up, and drinking my daily chocolate milk fix before my eyes have really opened all the way. It's not very good. And when you physically add the sugar part to your sugary indulgences, they seem much more indulgent. 

Like I said, this all goes down before my eyes are even fully opened. Which is maybe why today, I made my second mistake in the sugar vs. salt battle that so many poor souls have fought in before me and lost. (And won. I recognize that. But I don't want to dwell on "those people" right now either.) 

Today I stirred cocoa powder and salt in my milk and I drank it.

Two whole swallows, if you have to know. And then I reached for more "sugar" because I figured the bitter cocoa powder was at fault here. Michael witnessed this scene from across the kitchen over his regular bowl of cereal, and said "make sure you're not using the salt..." That's when I noticed I was adding more salt. To be honest, I guess it woke me up more than coffee probably ever could. But waking up is so overrated.

Let's get to the positive part of mornings, before this gets too pessimistic up in here:

Morning Commute: Then.

Morning Commute: Now.

Isn't that a beautiful view? We drive along that river every morning together (unless Ion has his way), and I so love that view. Do you know that sometimes we even see an elephant on our drive? We pass the Zoo just before the river, and sometimes, if we're lucky, that elephant makes an appearance. But that's only in the afternoons. 

Me and the elephant, we know mornings are hard.

Especially when you add salt to the wound.