Coffee

So, I didn't drink much more coffee than what you could find in the frosted sweet treats of Gloria Jean's kiosk in the food court.  Until I went to school.  By that time, I had hung out with all my coffee drinking friends and become accustomed to making an OCCASIONAL coffee treat.  I didn't like the bitterness of coffee, so i would kill that part with a LOT of cream and sugar. I like to say "I enjoy having coffee with my cream and sugar".  I am sure it gets old to some people.

Anyhow, when I started going to school... and working an eight hour day... and having to drive for an hour between home and work, an hour and a half between work and school and then about 20-30 from school to home... just in time to scarf some dinner and try to sleep for a few hours before running off to work again.

Coffee at work was free.  It was a courtesy and there was plenty of it and the stuff that goes in.  True, my cream was substituted with non-dairy creamer, but it did it's job.  I drank coffee like that for almost three years.  Having some at school when I could afford it, making it at home, having lots at my friend's houses, even my saturday job was coffee filled.  I really enjoyed it.

Until the caffeine problems hit.  Or at least I thought it was the caffeine.

Well, in truth the caffeine is a big part of it.  I would get stomach pains and other indications, and I would cease and desist on all coffee/soda intake for a month.  After that month for the better part of a couple years of doing this, I would go right back on the coffee.

During all this time, I would reduce slightly the amount of cream and sugar, it was getting very fattening.  I couldn't use sugar substitute, that gave me an instant headache.... worse if I accidentally got aspartame.  But still it was a lot of cream and sugar.

One day I had a problem, enhanced by coffee I found out later.  I felt bad, like if I stopped I would never move again on this earth.  It was freezing out in January and I couldn't move like I wanted to move and I told my mom and dad that I wanted to go to the emergency room.  There I continued my pacing all around the waiting room, trying to keep moving, drinking tons of water, I was frightened and I didn't know what was happening.  Eventually, I was able to sit still for a while.

After talking with a doctor-type person, the conclusion was anxiety.  I was to take these pills and stay away from caffeine as much as possible.  No more coffee... or so I thought.

Decaffeinated!  Ah, my saviour!  So I took my pills and drank lots of water and started drinking decaf... with lots of cream and sugar.

After a while, even decaf was giving me problems.  I supposed it was coffee in general, so I stopped filling up on decaf, unless it was a gourmet place like Caribou Coffee (http://www.cariboucoffee.com) or some other place.

So sadly, I gave up on my coffee.  I am still getting my Gevalia (http://www.gevalia.com) shipments of decaf, it is gourmet after all.  However, my passion has been squashed and I am just depressed when I see all my coffee waiting for me to make and drink it.

But the story isn't over!  I recently found I had been overdosing myself on sugar and carbohydrates, which I am sure the reader finds shocking, I'm sure.  So I begin the program known as the South Beach program, also called diet, but it isn't a diet.  I don't go on diets, I change my eating patterns.  The first two weeks is sugar and carb free, but decaf tea and decaf coffee are acceptable.

Desperate to get away from water and milk, I turned to that tea and coffee on more time.  The tea with all its anti-oxidents really bothers me and I will wait until I can add sugar to it again. However, the coffee is very good to me.

Adding a small amount of Splenda Brand Sweetener doesn't bother me. Milk makes an acceptible substitute for the cream.  The creamer had corn syrup solids, so I won't use that.  So with a minimal amount of cream and sweetness, I have started drinking coffee again!  What a surprise it is to drink the stuff without all the sugar and cream.  Give it to me a few years back and I would've made a face and left the drink behind.  Now, it is a friend.

Except when the cafe closes and I can't get the milk.  So now I find myself drinking small cups without cream whatsoever... and finishing them.  Perhaps one day in the near future, I will be able to drink the coffee without anything in it.  What a day that will be.

My friends would love it.