Morning Crisis

I will make no bones about it - I like my morning cup of coffee.  I mean, I really like it.  I might even say I am fairly addicted.  Sometimes I even think about and anticipate it while I am showering.  Often I will first make coffee, then shower and dress.  It's better that way.

Typically I use a small coffee maker that has marks on it indicating that it makes four cups of coffee.  In reality it makes enough coffee to fill one medium travel mug.  I am skilled at sipping that amount of coffee throughout much of the morning, and then I am done.  One cup.  Every morning.  Every.  Day.

So when I shuffled into the kitchen this morning - sleepy, bleary-eyed, stiff, and sore, just wanting my daily morning wake up jolt, I found myself in a bit of a crisis.  There was only about one tablespoon of coffee left in the bag, barely enough to make 1/2 cup of coffee.

I had so little coffee that I even cut off the top of the coffee bag to be able to extract every remaining crumb of coffee left down in there.  Here's what I was facing:

So, a fast trip to the local Dunkin' Donuts was in order for a bit of restocking of the essentials.  There was no current deal there today, but recently they were running a special of $19.99 for three one pound bags.  Have I mentioned that I love coffee?  Oh, and look what else fell out of the bag!

 I was thinking about how I fell in love with coffee so long ago.  Coffee was served on occasion in my home while I was growing up.  My father always liked a good cup of coffee; my mother is a tea drinker.  I never had an interest and so I didn't try coffee during those years at home.

I clearly remember having my very first cup of coffee, sitting at my desk in my freshman dorm room.  It wasn't even a real cup of coffee - it was instant coffee made with water I heated in a little plug in hot pot.  I believe I had been stuck working on a difficult math proof for hours (I was a math major), and I needed a little pick-me-up.  So I gave coffee a try.  I don't recall liking it that much, but I must've tried it again, probably the next evening, and the rest is history.

Yup, I'm addicted.  At least emotionally, that is.

And here's the thing - they say, whoever "they" are, that a moderate amount of coffee IS GOOD FOR YOU.  In one study, researchers found that women who drank 4 to 5 cups a day lived 16% longer.  And, both regular and decaf varieties of coffee do the job.

So I figure my daily mug of coffee is keeping me alive longer.  And that's a good thing, cause there are people to see, things to do, and places to be.

Now, where's my mug?