Coffee Break

Dear Shawn,

I’ve become one of those people- a coffee drinker. When I was in high school, my father was addicted to coffee; had to have it every morning. At one point, for some reason, he got tired of coffee, but had to have his caffeine, so every morning, from anywhere in the condo, I could tell when he’d awoken by the telltale pop of the can of Diet Coke. Every single morning. My aunt would come over on Sundays to take me church and would first have to run to the bathroom, blaming it on the cup of coffee she’d had.

Addiction has always sort of scared me. I’ve heard of so many lives ruined by it. Rock stars and their drugs and pain pills. Families and the alcohol. I’ve seen addiction in my own family, outside of caffeine. I do not want to be addicted to anything. Not even playing video games! (Let us not get into my various addictions, such as aviation and pizza. No lives are being destroyed because I take a million photos of airplanes.)

Eight years ago, after surviving that odd viral infection and suffered from acute fatigue, one of the suggestions I received was to drink coffee, in an attempt to overcome the tiredness. I did try it a few times, to no avail, and to be honest, I was glad it didn’t seem to work. Addiction.

The only time I ever really drank coffee was when I would visit my parents in Colorado. It was already made and Mom had all these great flavorful creamers to add to it. I’ve always run sort of hot, so the thought of coffee in summer was never appealing. But at my parent’s mountain home, it was always so cold, even in summer, that it seemed natural to drink hot coffee.

Then they put in a new coffee maker at work and added hazelnut creamers. At the start of a red-eye trip, still feeling tired, I thought I’d have a bit of caffeine to help me... give me a little boost. I was working all these trips leaving at 10 at night. I started having all these cups of coffee.

Next thing I know, I’m buying a coffee machine for my house. I had two cups yesterday. I’m having one now. I can’t wait for tomorrow to have more. Hell, why wait. I’m going in for another. See ya!