What does it take...

[Tyrion Cheddar]

This thread is about what it takes to get you going in the morning, to get your brain functioning, your limbs moving, etc. I will start with a sub-thread about coffee, in which is discussed how many cups of coffee it takes, what type, whether you must use a special cup for it, etc.

To get my brain from the melatonin-laden land of nod into this quotidian realm, I need at least two large mugs of coffee, plus sweetener, in my special white mug in which alone coffee tastes right.

[YesNo]

I use a mug of coffee made in a French press with freshly ground, although cheap, beans from Costco. Sometimes I don't need even that. I wake up with my mind going in directions I would not have anticipated the night before. The coffee calms it down.

[Danik 2016]

I need a cup of tea to get going, with plenty of suggar and milk. Also one or two slices of bread with cheese. I don´t want to terrify anyone, but at the time it´s mostly cheddar flavored cream cheese. ;)

[Pompey Bum]

I wake up around 4:30 each morning and pray for at least an hour. After that I drink the cup of (cold) coffee my wife placed on our bedstand for me the night before. Then I gather my secular thoughts, but if they trouble me I pray some more. At about 6:00 my wife slips out of bed and goes downstairs to meditate. When I'm ready, I fetch a cup of (cold) coffee from the pot we made the night before, sit in my comfy chair, and feel calm and safe while slowly sipping it. Once I'm really awake, I may check out Internet news sources on my IPad. When my wife is done meditating we make (and eat) breakfast. After that I read or write. These days I mostly write in the morning and read at night.

The coffee is almost always cold (meaning room temperature) and always black. I have around a dozen ceramic coffee cups; my favorite has a chip on the rim that I like to rest my lower teeth against as I drink.

That's how Pompey Bum faces another day: peaceful, righteous, and highly caffeinated.

[Tyrion Cheddar]

Goldang, PB, y'all eclipse the rest of us, I'm sure. :yawnb: I've heard about this thing of leaving a cup of coffee out the night before and enjoying it cold the next morning.
Do any of you enjoy heavy cream in your coffee? That's my thing. OK, let's explore other stimuli and ritual that brings you back to the land of the living. How about alarms? Do any of you have a clock radio alarm, let's say, set to a news or music station, which you then listen to, once awake, maybe while brushing and shaving? Do you drink your coffee and eat before heading to the bathroom to make your morning ablutions, or vice versa? How soon till you turn on the internet? What about morning exercise?

[YesNo]

In my house the internet is on all night. No alarms, except that after a while the cat starts making noises. No TV. No radio. Coffee is black, freshly made and hot. Morning ablutions are delayed as long as possible, sometimes too long.

[Mohammad Ahmad]

We rarely drink coffee but keeping on tea only, three cups of tea or more should be drunk each morning then going work if not your mind still in need for tea and perhaps a headache accompanying you all the day

[YesNo]

I've tried drinking tea in the past but the only teas I enjoy are mint teas and there is a mint plant outside that probably wishes I drank more coffee.

Regarding meditation, I am reminded of Cathy Thorne's views on mindfulness: http://everydaypeoplecartoons.com/every_cartoon.php?keywords=mindful&action=search

She also has a video showing you how to eat mindfully: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-NFekdNspQ

Generally, my problem with meditation is that I don't keep the back straight. That I think is critical to the enjoyment of it.

[Danik 2016]

Black tea in my both special ceramic cups with animals on it is my equivalent of coffee. We used to have it at home for breakfast. Eventually other members of the family adered to coffee, but I stuck to tea. I like coffee and mint tea too, but not for breakfast. I hope you have some grass in your garden too,Y/N, as a "mint tea" for the cat.
Mohammad- the headache may be a result of too much tea.

[Pompey Bum]

I only have cream in my coffee on special occasions like birthdays or Christmas morning. I haven't used an alarm for years, but when I did I used to keep it on a dresser far from the bed so I would have to walk across the room (usually freezing--at least in my memory) to hit the snooze button. After two or three hits it wasn't worth it anymore. I was well awake and just got up. As far as "ablutions" go, I'm 56 and get up to pee half the night. I don't even notice it anymore, which is doubtlessly a bad sign.

[YesNo]

Black tea in my both special ceramic cups with animals on it is my equivalent of coffee. We used to have it at home for breakfast. Eventually other members of the family adered to coffee, but I stuck to tea. I like coffee and mint tea too, but not for breakfast. I hope you have some grass in your garden too,Y/N, as a "mint tea" for the cat.
Mohammad- the headache may be a result of too much tea.

I usually drink the mint tea later in the day. I'm thinking of getting some now.

We live in a town home and so we are not allowed to touch the grounds, but that mint plant is in planters along with basil and a few other herbs and flowers outside. Come to think of it we have plants all over the place, on the porch, in the back patio, upstairs hanging down the stairs and on the lower floor by all the windows. I wonder if mint grows indoors? The cat sometimes chews on the leaves, but she is afraid to go outside.

[Danik 2016]

,,,,,,

[Danik 2016]

Self grown herb teas taste best. Here there are no special laws about what you plant in your garden, but I live in an appartment, without garden. A plant tried to grow patetically on the drain of the terrace, but I had to take it out because of the dengue mosquitos.

[YesNo]

If you have a window you could put plants there in pots. I've heard that Brazil has had a lot of mosquito related diseases.

[Danik 2016]

Some of these diseases are very recent here. I have windows, but without window sills. And we here must be very careful with these pots, because the mosquito lays it´s eggs in any ever so small puddle of water. Anyway I don´t like to grow plants and flowers. I like them in nature.

[Pompey Bum]

A plant tried to grow patetically on the drain of the terrace, but I had to take it out because of the dengue mosquitos.

Yikes! Dengue you don't want. I was suspected of having it after visiting Cambodia and was briefly quarantined on returning to Taiwan. Turns out I just had a high fever, but man were they scared of me at the Taipei airport. Anyway, yes, a plant ain't worth a scrap with "breakbone fever."

[Danik 2016]

Well they are working intensively on the vacine, so it should come out soon. And the Aedes mosquito doesn´t thrive in the cold, so I think North America is fairly safe.

[Tyrion Cheddar]

Notice how we went from morning coffee to dengue fever. :out: Returning to the subject of Maria Sharapova, I just saw a picture of her and hot damn, that'd wake me up in the morning. 6'2"?!?! :yikes: I'm awake! I'm wide awake!

[Pompey Bum]

I heard she got dengue, the poor thing.

[Tyrion Cheddar]

As if that'd keep me away. Besides, now that she got popped for steroids, she needs something to do. Or someone.