Tuesday, March 25, 2014

It's the Little Things

Just a quick thought on a subject that's been "done"--

As I write this I'm sitting in a hotel room on one of my business travels, performing one of my favorite little rituals.   It's not very original, but I cherish it anyway.

Dad ALWAYS encouraged us to read the newspaper.  Since he had to leave so early (he had to be at work by 7, usually), he liked the afternoon edition to be fresh and crisp and waiting for him when he got home.  He would discard a section and I would be circling like a shark in the waters below, waiting for it.

When I went off to college, I started taking The Dallas Morning News; upon moving to Houston, I took the Houston Post.  I learned (shocking to those who knew me) that if I'd get up early enough, I could drink my morning coffee (yes, an entire pot) and read my morning newspaper in peace.  In the early days of being an "adult", this also included my morning cigarette(s).

I'm still doing it at 57 (though I now use the online editions of the New York Times and the Daily Telegraph).  Online isn't the same as having the newspaper.  I miss the smell of the paper and the way you got a little newsprint on your fingers if you weren't careful; the paper also had uses afterwards, such as lining birdcages, wrapping things, putting down for the dog when in an apartment, etc.

Nevertheless, I now have "instant gratification", since the online editions are usually updated when/as news occurs or changes, rather than "waiting for tomorrow".  I miss all the grand old papers of yesteryear, but as long as the New York Times, the Telegraph, and the Times of London hold out, I'll be good.

So, here I sit on a business trip, finishing a $12 "pot" (it's so tiny...) of coffee (at least they use Starbucks), having read a bit of today's NYT.

Do you have any little rituals like that?  What are they?  


*Note to hotelliers:  Not all of us like to be in a crowded breakfast area with Fox News blasting inescapably out of the TV.



No comments:

Post a Comment