a love story: sarah + eric // { plus a giveaway! }

Hello to all of Emily's friends! My name is Sarah, and I blog at One Sweet Tuesday. I am a photography hobbyist that's just beginning to toe the edge of a semi-pro career doing what I love. I have a small son, and he is my number one priority, but maybe one day I will go all the way and be a full-time photographer. In the meantime, I love to blog about my life as a stay-at-home mom and all the beautiful things I enjoy!

Seven years ago this month, Eric and I started seeing each other... and we've barely spent a day apart since.  By Valentine's Day that year, we'd made it official and decided to tie the knot. Quick, I know. I wish Emily could have been our wedding photographer... but, that's another story for another day. Today, I want to share a story of love and coffee.

When you get out of bed as early as I get out of bed... well, the coffee pot will be your best friend. I have had a long love affair with coffee: an affinity for the brew that began in childhood. The craving began long before the heyday of my youth, when I spent long hours of cramming for exams and late nights partying.

I remember watching my daddy drink coffee in the evenings as he got his police uniform ready for his graveyard shift. I remember him sneaking me out of the house some nights to meet my uncle, a long-haul trucker, at the all-night diner. He'd let me sneak sips of his sweetened black coffee from the hot rim of the thick, white ceramic cup. I remember Sunday mornings with my grandmother, her instant coffee sitting in the middle of the lace tablecloth spread over the dining table: the coarse crystals dissolving in the Fire King mug and the spoonfuls of sugar that she added to her drink.

In the early 90s, the Seattle coffee house culture finally arrived in my Southern town. I vividly recall my first taste of velvety latte foam, and the heady flavor of hot espresso. I thought the idea of working in a coffee house seemed so romantic.

I took my first job working in a coffee house when I was 19 years old. I learned how to steam milk, how to tell a good shot of espresso by the "head" that formed on the surface, and how to discern the differences between the flavor of an African coffee and a Latin American coffee.

Several years later, I took a job working at Starbucks. When Starbucks came to town, I hissed and booed the big corporation looming across the street from our local chain coffee shop. My first day working for Starbucks, I was keeled over by the knowledge that the company I now called home had grown by making corporate social responsibility its mission and culture. I worked at Starbucks for five years.

I met Eric while I was working at Starbucks.

He arrived one afternoon, standing behind his friend at my register. I was captured by his bearish good looks, his red beard, his broad mouth and sea green eyes. He handed me his debit card, and my fingers grazed the top of his wide thumb. He smiled at me shyly, laughing as if at some inside joke. I knew I wanted him.

Eric became a regular fixture in our cafe. He arrived promptly at 6:15 a.m., and ordered the same variety cappuccino every day for the next eight months. I looked forward to my morning shifts and the brief minutes that he'd visit on his way to work. I never thought that the feeling might be mutual. I never imagined that he only came in the hope that he'd get to see me.

All along, he was not addicted to the coffee. He was addicted to me.

So, you see: coffee is more than what gets me going in the morning. It is more than a fix, and more than a routine. Coffee is a potent reminder of everything that is good about my life. It is a reminder of childhood simplicity, family loyalties, the long and unadulterated nights of my youth, the warmth of the friendships that I have enjoyed, and the enchantment that came when I realized I had met the love of my life.

As a celebration of her love of coffee (and Eric, of course!) Sarah is giving one lucky Anna Delores reader a $15 Starbucks gift card!  Please stop by Sarah's blog to say "hello" and read more about her, Eric, and her gorgeous son, Seth.
 

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