The answer is: what would I do without it? Some people think caffeine is a vice. Some misguided individuals, and I feel sorry for them, think it is a sin. It’s not clear to me what’s wrong with caffeine; one of the most strident coffee-will-send-you-to-hell people I’ve known had no hesitation about eating a gallon of mocha ice cream with enough caffeine to make a cow dance. So maybe it’s ok if it’s in food. If it’s in a drink, it’s N/G, but naturally existing in a healthy food, such as ice cream, somehow cleanses it of its devilish properties. Does that make sense?

Anyway, I am one of the fortunate who are not afflicted with that particular judgmentalism. Every now and then, I think, I should give up caffeine since it [makes my nerves jangly; interferes with sleep; costs too much]. Pick your reason. It is awful to get over the dependency, but after a week I’m doing well. After 3 or 4 weeks it’s as though coffee never existed, why did I ever feel that it was ok to be dependent on it!! And all that money, at least ten dollars a WEEK!

And then I hit the magic number, which seems to be around 6 weeks. I wake up and think ahhhhhhhhh, that aroma! The flavor! The friendly burbling of the coffee maker, urging me to shake off the torpor of sleep, to plunge into the very essence of life, to sample its infinite possibilities and drink deep of its sweet elixir. And just like that, I’m back at the joe. And I think, what is the point of living, if I can’t even have coffee?? The idea that coffee might somehow be … unhealthy? Huh? Coffee is one of the main reasons I’m still ALIVE.

And the next thing I realize after THAT is, I can’t even remember why I thought I should give it up in the first place. And it’s as though something has clicked back into place, after being annoyingly in need of adjustment.

Viva la Starbucks. Let’s get this done.