Accepting imperfection

So I have a little bit of a history with coffee mugs. I had a favorite one for years that my best friend made me in college - she's a great potter and it was pink and blue, and had a nice handle. It eventually went the way of all fragile objects, and my next favorite cup was one I bought for myself on my 30th birthday. We were in California for reasons I no longer remember and I spent a few kid-free minutes in a chi-chi clothing and accessories store and bought this cute cup with my first initial on it. If I recall correctly, that's the one Peter snatched off the counter, whacked me in the head with, and then dashed to the floor. I bought a replacement and broke it myself. Likewise the next one, a tall red pottery cup from Target. The most recent one was a cool jaquard pattern - a black and white print that I bought on clearance at Target (and why I bought one, not two, remains a mystery.) Because, of course, I smacked it against the counter by accident yesterday morning, and rendered it obsolete. Now there is not, technically, any coffee mug shortage in our home, but a girl likes to have her very own mug, you know? So I set out to find yet another temporary permanant mug. Target proved to be not the place I needed to go (overtly holiday mugs aren't quite as cozy in July). Likewise the cute pottery/gift store downtown. (Nice dessert plates - but no regular-person-sized-non-Christmas mugs.) So today I stopped into Starbucks (the drive-through one, not the close by one) to buy coffee for us and a gift card for Grace's teacher, and saw this red mug. There was also a silver version, but the red one seemed just somehow better in my red kitchen, and cheerful, and on sale... so I bought it, and just as I was driving away, realized that because of the ultra-shiny red finish (think Christmas ornament finish, on a coffee cup) it's probably handwash. And worse: when I got home, I checked the bottom, and sure enough. "Ne pas mettre ce produit au for a micro-ondres." Thank God I high-passed that French exam. And while in theory this isn't so bad (I don't microwave coffee, and typically heat water for tea in the teakettle) the real killer here is going to be hot cocoa. I had to microwave the milk for the cocoa in a different mug, then pour it in the shiny red mug, then stir in the cocoa, then add enough Kahlua to make up the difference in volume between the two mugs. C'est la vie.