Mugs! And my dishwasher!Periodically, I've collected stuff. Books, of course. In high school I'd haunt used bookstores and library sales and obsessively searched out the paperback novelizations of the original Star Trek -- mostly written by James Blish, who wrote other sci fi but also did this on the side. Then there was the Buffy phase -- more books and other stuff -- it's sitting in two plastic bins on the top shelf of my closet....

But the mugs, well, I don't even know how it started. I don't have too many. They have to be just right. By this I mean: Odd, quirky or supremely memorable. The place itself is key. A mug that says I Heart Dobermans -- nope. A mug from the Texas Prison Museum where you can visit the real Old Sparky-- yup. Right now, I'm drinking coffee from my James Joyce mug. It's from our trip to Ireland, so it's great in that regard. I had a lovely grey wool cap from that trip, too, but I left it in a taxi in Manhattan last March and so it's the James Joyce mug that's left, and my memories of a lot of Jamesons in various pubs...

Back to the mugs: A few are sentimental: mugs from various school visits or Bethany Hegedus's Writing Barn in Austin. But mostly they're weird. Like the one for Mars Cheese Castle in Kenosha, WI. Have you been? Here's the link: http://www.marscheese.com/store/?COREseourl=/
Or the Wagon Wheel Restaurant on Route 66 in Needles CA, where there was a corded phone at every booth! (This is topped only by the restaurant where we used to have breakfast when we lived in Albuquerque NM, where each table had its own toaster and the cords wound beneath your feet with dozens of fire-hazard extension cords in this devil may care way that delighted me no end. Just the thought that my English muffin might torch the place if I wanted it extra crispy! Like Breakfast Theater!) Here's the link to Wagon Wheel: http://www.wagonwheelneedles.com

I love kitsch. What can I say.
(Also I love Taylor Kitsch (Tim Riggins! FNL!), but that has nothing to do with the mug topic)

The picture above has, from left to right: James Joyce (with my coffee!); Teague Middle School (school visit); Pea SoupAnderson's  (a strange Swiss chalet place on Hwy 101 where they serve, yeah, pea soup and everyone lines up for like a block. Here's the link: http://www.peasoupandersens.net ; the aforementioned Mars Cheese Castle; Writing Barn http://www.thewritingbarn.com ; and the aforementioned Texas Prison Museum. It is right up the road from me in Huntsville. It has a gift shop. (as does the Funeral Museum in Spring, but that's another story, too). http://www.txprisonmuseum.org

Let me know if you collect anything weird and why.