One more cup of coffee for the road

I wasn't fully aware that I had become addicted to caffeine - yet again - until today. I'm sitting here at my desk with a throbbing head, almost as though my sinuses are backed up and the only cure is to lay in bed and sleep it off. Looking at my computer screen, I can't focus. I try to sit up straight but my back curls over the edge of my desk. I try to write this blog entry and find myself holding my head as though it hurts to think, as I harness all my energy to squeeze out one collected thought at a time... very... slowly.

It's only been one or two weeks since I've reverted to my old ways of sipping the juice in the morning. Ah coffee, my old comrade: a pick me up, something to get my day started. I began drinking again, thinking it was harmless; just a way to make sure I'm ready and raring to go by the time I get to work, a way to focus my mind. Once I acknowledged my dependency on it - the last time around - I realized I should get off the stuff "for good". Then, months later, I actually decided to... when I saw that my teeth had become the charming shade of 1920s photographs. Superficial? Maybe. But what kind of person would I turn into if I sustained such a vice? I mean, Mommy always said caffeine made Daddy mean at night time.

And now - after moving into a new apartment and establishing a new route to work, which happens to pass right by my local coffee shop - I've begun groggily stumbling in for a little morning boost, despite my triumph of kicking that habit months ago. A girl's gotta wake up somehow!

So here I sit, at my computer, half awake, chatting on instant messenger with my friend from down the hall about needing caffeine - a conversation he initiated after witnessing my condition. "Maybe we should walk down the street for some coffee," he says very sympathetically. I find it funny that as I write this, all my concurrent communications with other people orbit around this powerful little drink. What a hold it has on me!

After much deliberation, I think we've built up the morale. I'm off to get some caffeine!