50 Shades of Brown

There are those mornings when you wake up feeling relaxed, energized and ready to take on the ups and downs of the day. And then there are other mornings... Mornings when morning comes too soon; when your snooze button rudely interrupts your dreams 10 times before you finally surrender and crawl out of bed; mornings when your eyelids refuse to let go of one another and mornings that are simply not complete without many cups of coffee and its wonderfully delicious shades of brown.

I've had a lot of those mornings lately. At one point, first thing in the morning, one of my colleagues asked me "Are you ok? Are you sick?" No, I was not sick... I was exhausted.

Up until recently, I never hit the snooze button when it was time to wake up. Once I was up, I was up. Now, I count the number of times I hit snooze and between each hit, I start rationalizing with my sleeping-self.

Tania, if you wake up now, you'll have time to exercise, shower, have coffee, breakfast and catch a recorded episode of Will & Grace.

*SNOOZE* 

Tania, if you wake up now, you'll still have time to exercise, shower, have a quick breakfast and watch half a Will & Grace episode... probably no time for a full cup of coffee.... who needs a full cup anyway?

*SNOOZE* 

Tania! You can still exercise and shower; coffee is definitely out of the question but you can have a quick bite and watch a few minutes of Will & Grace... I don't need to watch a full episode; I know them all by heart anyway.

*SNOOZE* 

Tania!! Just get up. Breakfast will be on the run. No time for anything. Just get up and go!! Thank goodness there is a coffee machine at work.

Nobody told me how laborious this wedding planning business would be. I am not complaining at all; I am enjoying every single most seconds of it. Wedding planning is not difficult; you just have to be organized. The difficult part is making sure that all other aspects of your life (like work... or blogging!!(haven't exactly passed with flying colors here)) stay afloat. Honestly, don't employers know how time consuming planning a wedding is? I say, just like parental leave, there should be a plan-your-wedding-leave! ☺

It is now crunch time!! My mind is racing on all the things that need to be done and, in turn, I feel like Mr. A and I are racing against the clock. 8 days and dozen of cups and shades of coffee to go... still so tired but so grateful and excited.

Coffee comes in all many shades and shapes. Here's an amazing recipe for Mexican Coffee Granita. Beautiful brown crystals of frozen coffee. Yum!

Mexican Coffee Granita

Ingredients
- 2 cups strong black coffee or espresso (lukewarm)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons coffee liqueur
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 3/4-1 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions
1- Combine all ingredients and stir until the sugar dissolves.
2- Poor the mixture in a pan and place it in the freezer.
3- Scrape and fluff the mixture with a fork every 30 minutes for about 3-4 hours until it is thoroughly frozen.
*Serve with sweetened whipped cream if desired.