COFFEE TIME

Celebrate the first ever National Coffee Break at Starbucks and get a free coffee at participating Starbucks locations from 10 a.m.-noon today! I for one, jump at anything free, particularly when it helps feed my caffiene addiction (and gets me out of work for awhile). Woo hoo!

BLACK COFFEE

As with millions of other people who have fallen victim to them, I am completely and utterly under the spell of Starbucks. Sad, but true. Last week, I went everyday for my usual: venti, iced Americano (and that stuff is hard core), unsweetened...no room. I can't seem to get through the work day without going to Starbucks between 2-3 p.m. for my drink. I've started a viscous cycle -- Monday: dead tired, go through half the day still dead. Come home at lunch and take a 30 minute nap, go to Starbucks, regain energy, can't sleep at night, go to bed REALLY late because of the effects of the Americano and then do the same thing the rest of the week. The sad thing is that I drink regular coffee in the mornings to wake up...but that doesn't seem help me out by the time the middle of the afternoon rolls around. All of it...bad. Maybe I'll stop drinking the potent Americanos and just have an iced tea instead. Nah, I tried that once before and that didn't work too well.

For SUPER strong coffee, skip Starbucks and go to Peet's instead. Just smelling their coffee makes me hyper (their iced tea too...is WAY strong and strangely doesn't taste much like tea...takes like weak coffee). I make Peet's at home, but not nearly as strong as they do in their stores. Sometimes, I make it just a tad stronger and seriously it makes me feel intoxicated. I once made the mistake of drinking 6 big cups of Peet's coffee at my great-aunt's house with my mom. Neither my mom nor my great-aunt are particularly calm people -- both being pretty outgoing and chatty by nature...and I realize I'm not a particularly quiet person all the time, nor am I ever quiet when caffeine-intoxicated. So... combine my 80-something year old great-aunt, my mom & I amped up on caffeine and look out world!!!

Ok fine, that was my brief but pathetic commentary on the bad (yet fun) effects of caffeine. Now, I will go prepare my coffee maker to brew me some "life-juice" for tomorrow morning. The viscous cycle never ends...oh well!

Too much caffeine...cannot sleep...bad, bad, bad.

KNOW YOUR ENEMY

A lesson I should have learned when I first discovered coffee: DON'T DRINK IT WITHIN TWO HOURS OF BEDTIME!!!

Of course I asked for decaf, but judging by my unusual burst of energy at this time of night (or is it morning already), I don't think they gave me my decaf. I did however discover a new yummy coffee beverage though! After going to dinner and perusing Sunset Blvd. and other various stores and places where people (sort of) our age congregate, Gretchen & I went to Borders Books for some coffee since it seemed Starbucks decided it was closing early today. I know I'm going off on a tangent here, but my goodness, of all places you'd think would be open in the evening, Starbucks would definitely be at the top of my list, but for some reason, all of the ones we noticed were CLOSED - amazing! As I was saying, Gretchen and I ended up at Borders cafe to grab some coffee and I got a yummy Mochaberry (basically it was just a raspberry mocha) and it perked me up immediately...for 4 hours longer that I had intended, but I'm not complaining. We hoped to hang out there and catch up on the few years that had passed us by, but low and behold, yes, they were on the verge of closing too! So not fair, so not fair. Oh well, I guess we'll catch up further when she returns back home for Christmas vacation.

What was my point? Oh yeah, the caffiene..which is FINALLY beginning to wear away so thankfully I will be able to go to sleep! Am I making any sense? At this point I'm completely delirious by caffiene and lack of sleep, so I'm going to bed!