Use Past Association (aka The Dregs)
When we met and started dating, after having corresponded for several weeks online, he told me at one point that the only disappointment he had when we we were getting to know each other was that I didn't drink coffee as much as he did. At that point, although I loved coffee, it gave me a headache so I limited my consumption. When I started teaching kids and pre-teens in August '09, coffee became an imperative. To survive their energy I had to step up my game. So I'd often drink coffee in the morning and then again in the afternoon to steel myself before classes. And I haven't stopped.
The thing is, though, I drink from this red mug and I can't pour my coffee into it without thinking of Tyson. Last night for a brief moment I had a fantasy of smashing it to bits. Going out into the street with a sledgehammer and turning it to a fine red dust (like I have a sledgehammer). But the thing is, I really like it, and I hope that someday I'll be able to pick it up and not see his gift and his coffee love inside it. This has happened before. I bought the same kind of boots that a guy I'd dated had worn once, and I stopped associating him with them. In high school, I wore the same cologne as my first love, and eventually it became my scent rather than his. (It took me years to find a woman's perfume that didn't completely disgust me, I only wore men's in high school.) So I know that it's possible to use this mug past the point of association. It's the interim that drives me crazy, especially now that I use it everyday.
It makes me want to call him, in spite of everything, and say "Your biggest disappointment? Well, now I drink coffee just as much as you."