My path back to liquid substance dependency

November was a banner month for me. So much so, I never hope to repeat it. Outside of the 10 or so pounds that I lost due to the plague, another massive change occurred: I went about three weeks without coffee.

No Starbucks, no brewing at the office and no morning prior-to-leaving-the-house coffee. Zero caffeine. Cold Turkey. Kaput.

When I am under the weather I stop drinking the black caffeine laced liquid goodness. A day goes by and I treat the caffeine withdrawal headache with Advil. A week goes by and I don’t notice it because I feel like death warmed over as the plague courses through to my soul. When I am that sick, no longer do I giddily dream about the first cup of coffee that I will enjoy the next day…I dream about the ability to smell, to taste, to breath. You know, the morose side of being sick.

But then I get better.

Work is no longer an experience akin to violating the printed warning about operating heavy machinery while taking this drug. I can function away from my bed. I can smell. I’ve showered. I am returning to the human race. The usual ten-hour day at the office is a doable, exciting and cherished concept. The workday winds on though, with the clock slowing to a halt, and early in the afternoon I can no longer function. What is happening???

I fear that I am having a relapse and three weeks of anti-biotics have done nothing but a create a super disease. But that’s when it strikes me: I ignored my coffee in the morning, I did not stop by Starbucks and my desktop coffee maker is idle.

Today I did not make the same mistake.

I inhaled my morning litre-o-coffee, drank a taurine laced vitamin water on the train ride to the office and I promptly fired up the coffee-maker when I got to the office. It’s now about two in the afternoon, I’ve run multilple 4.2 forties between here and the bathroom, and there is no chance that I will be falling asleep at my desk today.

It feels great to be back in the swing of things. Even with the caffeine induced shakes.