at least my morning coffee is the same...

i am not much of a morning person. o.k., it is more fair to say i am absolutely not a morning person. however, i do love my morning coffee, and the morning news. this is a deeply ingrained ritual i learned from my mother and my grandmother. when i was a very little girl, my mother and grandmother would sit at the table, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes, and talking about the news, the weather, and kids. i loved the smell of the coffee and couldn't wait untill i was old enough to drink it. i wanted to sit around the table and visit. sometimes, my mom would fill a cup with warm milk and a little sugar, then a dash of coffee, and let my sister and i in on "talking about our kids". we had a lot of great times at that table. bread and butter sandwiches folded over. pretend restaraunt. secret fort. and board games. we often played board games. masterpiece, sorry, clue, and my favorite: monopoly. early this morning as i was sipping my coffee (i drink it black now that i am old enough) and watching the news (hopefully my grandmother is watching with me) i saw the new monopoly game on television. they've taken away the paper money, and replaced it with debit cards. the banker swipes cards in a little machine to complete transactions. the prices of things are higher. they took away the iconic shoe, car, and hat pieces, and replaced them with more modern things, like an airplane and a cell phone. worse, they replaced the "you've won $50.00 in a beauty pageant" community chest card with something about winning a reality t.v. show! i wonder if they have a starbucks yet...