8-11-25

A couple of decades ago, it was the Cabbage Patch doll, complete with a little adoption certificate to be completed upon purchase. Was it only a decade ago that Tickle-Me-Elmo was such a hot ticket that people assaulted one another under the holiday lights with the smell of sage and green bean casserole still lingering on their clothes? Last Christmas, it seemed Stanley cups were the ‘it’ gift, weren’t they? Stanley cups. Go figure. An insulated drinking cup produced by Stanley 1913, a not-very creative name for a company founded in 1913 by William Stanley, Jr., the Stanley cup that became all the rage in 2024 promises to keep your warms warm and your colds cold.

And why, you ask, am I wasting precious moments of life writing about any beverage vessel, much less the trendy Stanley 40 ounce Beverage Tumbler? Here, fill my tumbler with some wine – red, if you don’t mind, and I’ll try to explain.

I drink a lot of water – easily two of those 40-ounce tumblers a day, plus a giant mug of Irish Breakfast tea in the morning and an additional 30 ounce insulated tumbler (not Stanley brand) of the aforementioned Irish Breakfast. I make the tea in a separate cup to ensure that the water tumbler doesn’t become tainted with the tannins of the tea or its sides stained by them.

As soon as I finish drinking my morning tea, I fill up my 40 ounce tumbler – I wish I could tell you it’s a Stanley brand, but they were far too pricey, so it’s a knockoff brand that was far less expensive and not nearly as cool – but it did come with a straw and a handle…hmm does this make me sound like I’m trying too hard? Probably. Anyway, I fill the tumbler up with ice and spring water from the refrigerator, and by the time I do that much, I usually get called away to either find something that was never really lost in the first place for my husband or to tend to a not really urgent need of my mom…whichever it is doesn’t really matter. What matters is that the cup must be set down, and when I come back, even just minutes later, somehow, the 40 ounce cup that I just filled is now half empty.

Undaunted, but perhaps a little confused, I unscrew the top to double-check what I can already feel is the case, and I refill the bottle with fresh spring water. Again, I’m about to head off to tackle the day’s TO DO list when some other need peeks out from beneath the countertop and makes itself known, disguised as a task which must be completed immediately or else the world as we all know it will end in chaos and destruction.

For a second time, I cease to exist as something other than a vessel of service to others, and for a second time, I set down my knockoff Stanley 40 ounce tumbler, now brimming with sparkling, clear spring water that promises to rejuvenate and rehydrate me.

And for a second time upon my return, the glass is definitively lighter, and my heart is starting to beat a little harder because I know what’s happening here. It’s the same thing that happens every day, the same thing that makes me fall asleep at my keyboard sometimes or cry myself to sleep on the way home from what should be a simple trip to the grocery store.

What’s happening is that I am constantly being depleted; someone is constantly drinking from my cup because it’s easier than filling up their own. Why bother washing, unscrewing, adding ice and water, and then going to all the trouble of finding the top and then screwing it onto the tumbler and then having to slip the straw into the open space in order to get a refreshing, cold drink, when there is one prepared right in front of you? You can simply drink your fill from that one, then leave whatever is leftover for the next person to deal with, if there’s any left over at all. And if the mug is empty, it’s not your problem because you got what you needed, and the next person can pick up the mess you left behind on the counter or fill the now-empty container because, really, you have other, more fun, better things to do, and you simply cannot be bothered by something as mundane as a 40 ounce Stanley mug.

But on those days when your energy is flagging, and you’re fighting to keep your eyes open, and the Stanley cup that always seems to be on the counter, filled to the brim with ice water isn’t anywhere to be found, please don’t get aggravated because life isn’t fair to you and sometimes life may even be a little inconvenient and hard. Just take a look in the cupboard next to the sink because I’ll bet you that, before she left, that invisible woman who used to spend so much time refilling the Stanley cup with cold, spring water and ice, probably made sure the dishes were clean, a fresh pot of coffee was made for you for tomorrow morning, and the breakfast dishes were all laid out perfectly, so you probably won’t even miss her – at least not until your belly starts growling a little with hunger pangs for lunch!