wake up and smell the heaven

i could not love a human baby as much as i love coffee. in many ways, coffee is like my other marriage...i definitely see him more on many days than i do my husband, and we have been together a lot longer.

my love affair with coffee began when i was 13 years old, when my mother first bought me a dunkin donuts ice coffee with lots of milk and sugar. on that hot summer day, i remember how grown up i felt carrying around my oversized D&D mug, and how delicious the sweet (mostly milk and ice) conconction danced down my throat. the coffee back then was decaf, but it didn't matter. i was hooked. from then on if we went out for ice cream, it was coffee flavored for me, thanks very much. chocolate cake? i'll take "mocha." i was an adult now, and knew where my loyalties lied.

as the years went on, and my nerd persona flourished, i found another use for my old friend: studying. it wasn't long before studying and coffee consumption were synonymous for me...and what a glorious pair they were. coffee was a study break and study enhancer all in one. many college friends remarked that they never saw me without a coffee mug in my hand. i would just smile bashfully, as if they had told me they loved my shirt, or asked if i'd been working out because i was looking goood.

living in costa rica was perhaps the icing on the cake of my coffee fetish. not only did i gulp down unprecedented amounts of tropical brew, but visited coffee plantations and witnessed all steps of production from plant to bag. i imagined that i was somehow part of the process- now with an alchemist's secret knowledge of how to turn beans into gold.

when people tell me they don't drink coffee, or smugly that they "never started," i honestly feel sorry for them. they will never know the unfettered joy i feel as my fragrant divine potion drips from my mr. coffee each morning. and they will never have the steadfest friend i have found in coffee. as my semester heats up, and i start to wonder how the hell i'm going to finish all the work i need to do by december, i know that coffee will be my side. glorious, glorious coffee.