Slice of Life Orange Juice 30 of 31

via WikiMedia Commons

Normally I start my day with coffee.  There's something about the smell of coffee filling the house that helps get the day off to the right start.  This morning, the first day back from spring break, I walked out to the kitchen and started my pot of coffee.  When I went to make my cup of coffee, it just didn't sound good.  I tried to drink it, but barely made a dent in the cup.

What has happened to my morning drink?  Has it been replaced by - wait for it - orange juice?  Yep, I seem to be back in love with orange juice.  I'm really not sure what is going on exactly.  All I can tell you is that last week I picked up a bit of a virus.  After spending an entire night sick, I was able to calm my stomach with some Sprite and my grandma's old stomach remedy.  I'm not sure how it went exactly, but I have made it something like this:  a teaspoon of Sprite on crushed ice repeated again at 15 minutes.  If that stays down, gradually increase the amount of Sprite though the time increments grow a bit too.  Of course, I found that nothing really sounded good.  It was days before I ate much and certain foods don't sound good yet.

For some reason, coffee is one of the things I haven't really had a taste for since I have been back on the road to recovery.  It doesn't really make sense; I hadn't had coffee before getting sick.  Still, coffee just doesn't sound good, but orange juice sounds divine.  There's something about the golden orange drink chilled to just the right temperature that makes me smile.  This morning I stopped by the our local Circle K to pick up a small bottle on my way to school.  This evening I stopped at the store to pick up a container of orange juice to have at the house so there isn't a crisis in the morning.

It seems my habits are on reboot so I might as well make the best of it.  Perhaps orange juice might be a healthy alternative to coffee for now.  Of course, this isn't the first time orange juice and I have been close friends.  There was the time we drove to Florida when I was child.  When we crossed into Florida, after driving for what seemed like days, we were greeted by free orange juice.  That was perhaps the best orange juice I have ever had.  Was it because it was free?  Was it because it was actually in Florida?  Was it because I was just thankful to get out of the car?  I have no idea.

Then there were the "TANG" years.  Yes, my grandma was a big fan of TANG.  She made us drink a small class before breakfast to "clean the flues out" each morning.  Oh, TANG.  Those were the days.

What's up with orange juice?  I really have no idea, but for now I'm going with it.  I have orange juice ready for the morning.  A little glass of sunshine to start the day seems the perfect ticket to happiness.

For the month of March I will be participating in the March Slice of Life Challenge hosted at Two Writing Teachers.  It will be a busy month of writing, commenting, and learning with this community.  This year I've decided to try to focus my writing around happiness.  Stop by today's link up to join the conversation or find some great reading.