My kingdom for some caffeine!

Up until I was 24, I preferred tea to coffee. Sure, during my aupair year, what my hostfamily (and many other Americans) called coffee helped me survive the hours around noon when the baby was sleeping, but I wasn't supposed to sleep. Then I started college and suddenly tea was en vogue again. Along came the cigarettes. Nicotine and caffeine don't really play nicely together in this body of mine. Toward the end of that good old time in college, when my Master's Thesis was looming, Nicotine started playing a supporting role again. As was tea. Well, tea started to be more like an extra - if you wanna stay in movie terminology.

Coffee is now my religion (Nicotine has long gone bye-bye)! In my later semesters it already played a role if I had to survive early classes (which would be classes starting around 10 am). It was some kind of professor/students bonding ritual. Everyone met at the coffee shop, barely able to grunt at each other (an acceptable morning greeting within the academia), bought a coffee-to-go and walked to class together in silence. After the first 5 to 10 sips, the world was a happier place and so was class. The Latte Macchiato guy and the Cappuccino girl could happily co-exist. If that isn't an ideal world, I don't know what is.

So coffee got big. Huge, in fact. See, I'm a night owl. I work best at night when everything around me is quiet and when there's just crap on TV. Procrastination is much harder then. My neighbors would throw a fit if I started cleaning the bathroom at 3 am. That means I'll get some work done. It also means I wrote my entire Master's Thesis at night. I did my research in the afternoon. I started writing around 8 pm and I went to bed around 7 am. The thesis wasn't a masterpiece, I admit. BUT .... it would have been worse without that daily - or rather nightly - dosage of caffeine.

As I was saying; While coffee began sneaking into my life as soon as I went off into the big world - living 4000 Miles away from Mommy's cocoa, it turned into a necessity with the research nightmare that was my thesis.

The Master's Thesis was finished a while ago, the grades are in, the exams were written ... what stays is my caffeine addiction and the coffee stains allover the carpet around my computer. I can't make myself getting rid of that rug. Is it bad that I feel an emotional attachment to coffee stains?

Well, - and this is for Ashley, one of my two non-imaginary readers, who also seems to like coffee (although at a much earlier age than I did :) ) - I found the perfect gifts for people like us: You can actually buy stuff with a caffeine molecule on it. I want this! If anyone ever needs a gift for me: Buy This! If I have to use my subliminal affirmation skills on this blog - so be it! I want one of those caffeine molecule things! And don't call me a geek!