What's hot, black, and everywhere?

Author's note: This would have been posted MUCH earlier, but R stopped by. No, Bear, nothing happened. Well, except for, along with the hug, I also got a kiss goodbye.

Coffee. Today's post will be about coffee, courtesy of Saucy Suse.

I came to coffee late in life. It's a tragedy, I must admit. Nearly, but not quite on par with the Blue Cheese Dressing story....Available sometime in the future.

No matter the question, the answer for me was never coffee. Growing up, the only time I can remember drinking coffee is on trips. We'd be on our way camping/fishing/hunting, and we'd inevitably stop in some 24 hour greasy spoon in some fly speck of a town, and get something to eat or drink.

Now, as I've never really been a fan of hot chocolate (i've gotten better), I'd always order coffee, and LOAD it up with cream and sugar. Even then, it was all I could do to choke the vile mess down.

And, so it went.

When I was 23, three things happened, almost silmultaneously, that changed my life forever. They are, in order:

1. I went back to school. College, for those of you doubting a 23 year old High School student.


2. I moved into a house in Morro Bay, California, with the coffee joanzes of the Universe.


3. I started hanging out with my (still) best friend Tammy. Note, I've used her whole name. She deserves no less.

I'll now tackle these individually.

School was fun, but, being not independantly wealthy, I had to get a job. I worked swing shift (3-11 pm) at the 7-ELEVEn (look at a sign sometime). It was a job, and fit almost perfectly with my school schedule. I have many horror stories, and, have no fear, you shall hear the best of them. The title of my blog even relates to those days. Now, taking 12 units a semester, and working 40 hours a week left me a bit tired, to say the least.

There are many things I could say about the house in MB, but the only really signicant (to this post, anyhow) one is this. My roomate R had a Braun coffee/cappuchino machine. There was always a pot of coffee on. In addition, at least once, and sometimes 2 or more times a day, I was subjected to the "You want a cappuchino?" question. This becomes eaiser to understand if you realize that it made 2 at a time.... So, I was now drinking coffee/caps, but was still s&c'ing the hell out of them.

Enter Tammy. We had first year German together, and ended up being 'partners.' In this class, the teacher would give you situations, and you would have to figure out,-in German, of course-, how to have the conversation. I can't tell you how many of our dialogues were worked out at Denny's at like....midnight+. I happened to notice that she drank her coffee black, so I decided to give it a try.

The upshot? In the space of about 3 months, I went from an avowed coffee avoider, to drinking the house caps naked. And I don't mean sans clothes, but sugarless. Now, I do quad or more caps...still without the benefit of sweeteners or flavors.

I now subscribe to the "If you wanted a cup of cream and sugar, why'd you order coffee?" mentality.

Guess that's it for now. Look for the real/fake/what it's all about post soon. I'm about 4 beers over the line atm, and I'm going to sign off.

Later,

T.