#11 CRAZY, BUT TRUE

I recently opened my kitchen cupboard and found something, well, how can I put it?  I found out something disturbing about myself.

OMG, I AM COLLECTING McDONALD COFFEE CUPS! You know the paper/Styrofoam, orange/brown ones with a white McCafe scribbled on a field of brown. The one that has the disclaimer, “CAUTION handle with care I’M HOT,” in two languages (and we all remember that fiasco don’t we?).

Well, I have 20 of them lined up in the dish cupboard; four sets; five to a set. Have I gone completely nuts? I turned around after realizing what I was doing and spied 10 more (yes, you read right, arranged in two sets of five) sitting on the counter next to my range.   I have completely gone around the bend. A quick look around netted 6 more in the dish drainer. OMG, I’M COLLECTING McDONALD COFFEE CUPS!

Wait a minute, wait a minute, no, I’m not senile, over the hill, demented or anything like that. Yes, I’m a little eccentric (ok, a lot), but I must have a reason (and hopefully I can come up with several plausible reasons) for such bizarre behavior.

So, I began to ponder (oh, no here I go again) why on earth am I amassing a flotilla of McDonald coffee cups ? Incidentally I have numerous lids too. Therefore, over the next few days I monitored my collecting and use of said cups; this is what I found:

Every day my Dad brings home a coffee cup from his lunch at McDonalds.  Instead of getting a refill on his coffee he has me fill the empty cup with diet Coke before we leave. This comes home with him for his afternoon refreshment. The cup eventually ends up on the kitchen counter. I usually rinse the cup out so a not to attract ants.  But, here is where it all goes wrong … … I begin to think of uses for this empty cup. To use as a pet food scoop, a disposable drinking cup, a plant starter, bacon grease container, scrap food receptacle, a poop scoop, ... and on ...and on ...and on. That is why the cup goes into the dish drainer and eventually into the cupboard.

The next shock occurs when I go to the cupboard for a glass. I see the McDonald cups, but do not take one. Why, you ask? Well, I might need one for something else later (see why I am alarmed!).

I found uses for the lids, too. I heat Dad’s vegetables in the microwave. I discovered that large ceramic coffee cups do the trick (since the alarming news about the danger of heating stuff in plastic containers). But, without a lid the stuff can splatter. Like a lightening bolt it hit me, place an inverted coffee cup lid on top. It worked. Not only that the leftover vegies. can be left in the cup, covered by the lid and placed in the frig. NEAT! So, now there are even lids by my cups in the cupboard, and lids by my microwave.

At this point my mind is actually pondering saving a matching set of covered dishes. I mean, those Styrofoam breakfast plates are great for keeping things warm. Hummmmm… … …

PLEASE stop me now, I am actually considering it!

kt 2010