Coffee

In my mind, it's almost winter. I don't care that the sun is beating down outside and heating my car up to about 100 degrees, making me sweat my balls off and mocking me for my optimism in wearing a three-quarter sleeve t-shirt. My family is in the cold right now, and so in order to feel any part of home, I'm reduced to surrounding myself with cliches of the season. And frankly, I don't care. It will be winter in my world. And that's why the special, special Winter Blend coffee from Trader Joe's is now taking up residence in my kitchen cabinet.

Oh, it's glorious, even as it sits in dregs getting cold in the travel mug next to my computer. It smells like cinnamon and cloves, like what I'd be drinking in front of a fireplace in order to stay warm if I inhabited my happy little fantasy place where the leaves are falling, it smells clean and cool (instead of hot and smoky, thanks L.A. fire) and there are more natural colors represented in the outdoors than brown and a green that kind of chokes on itself.

If I keep the shades pulled, by the way, I can forget where I am altogether. Just me and the flies, and the scent of Winter Blend.