In 2006 I spotted and immediately fell in love with a coffee mug in a Barista. It was blue and it had white stars and one yellow crescent moon on it. It was marked “Made in Mexico for barista Imports, INC.” on the bottom and made out of heavy pottery. I had just begun working when I bought the mug, and for me it symbolized the beginning a new phase in my life. I was obsessively careful with the mug: no one was allowed to use it or even touch it but me; I never put it in a dishwasher. I felt very protective of it. like i feel about all my best things.

Sadly, a years later the mug got broken anyway. I desperately began searching for a replacement. Finally I found a number of  a in hyderabad and mailed him. A very sweet man said that there might be one of the mugs on someone’s desk holding pencils, or perhaps there was one in the warehouse. He found one and mailed it to me at no charge, but he said to be very careful, because if I broke this one, he wouldn’t be able to replace it again. It arrived right before dewali in 2007, and it was the best dewali present EVER.

I began calling the mug my “holy sacred coffee mug.” I felt like it was a part of my identity. I remember that when asked what single item, if my home was burning down and I could take only one thing, would I take, and I answered without hesitation, “my holy, sacred coffee mug.”

Alas, cup number two got accidentally knocked off a table by my then-four-year-old son. He was afraid to tell me what he had done, as he know that I would be devastated. I was.

Since that happened I have conducted regular searches on ebay looking for a replacement. I have bought many other barista mugs, but none have equaled the one that I loved so very much. I tried my hand at painting in a pottery painting shop and was able to copy the design, but the cup itself was the wrong shape and weight. I loved the mug as much for the way it felt in my hand and the thickness of the lip as I did the design. I finally found the exact same mug, in a different pattern (white with the word “frappe'” all in lower case blue letters), which I purchased and which has been a suitable stand-in. It is the same weight and shape as my beloved broken cup. And I still have the moon and stars mug sitting on a shelf where I can see it every day. I glued it together, but it is no longer usable.

In a way I feel silly about my deep affection for this object, but I can tell you, if I saw one for sale, I would pay any price to get a new one.