Mmmm, caffeine

Relating (somewhat) to my last post, I am enjoying the sweet nectar of the gods right now, a 12oz can of Mountain Dew. For those of you who know me well, I used to drink this stuff like water. (Luckily I now drink water like water.)

In my early days at SimonDelivers.com while living with Steve I fancied myself some kind of computer programmer. (of course, having Steve program a game of Tetris while he was bored at work one day when I'd been struggling for days or weeks kind of shot that idea down) A combination of the sweet, smooth flavor and the "culture" of programmers that said caffeine is the programmer's life's blood (as opposed to one's life's blood) is what roped me in to drinking it too much. Because if I am a slave to anything I am a slave to the marketing or the hype of something that is "geeky-cool".(I know that sounds like a contradiction) Somedays I would suck down nearly a six pack of Dew and I probably averaged over a case a week--though in recollection that seems high. For reasons that I don't believe I need to go into this really wasn't that great of a habit.


Let's travel back, shall we? To a rare busy day at work when I didn't have the free time to saunter over to the pop machine for my morning dose. It was nearing 2pm and I still hadn't had a chance to run to lunch and thus hadn't eaten and, more importantly, hadn't had a Mt Dew. My head felt as though my brain was trying to escape from my skull. I chalked it up to being hungry and maybe sick or something. But when I rolled into McD's and poured myself a large MelloYello it dawned on me: "I am addicted to caffeine!"

Immediately thereafter came the weening period. One can of Dew a day at lunch time, that was it. No midmorning drink. No can during dinner. No two cans at night while programming or playing games. One can, no more. Oh, and advil, lots of advil. This went on for a while and after that while I was pretty much cured. I could go through the day without needing one.

Currently, like I mentioned, I hardly drink any pop at all. I don't get headaches anymore unless I've maybe had a couple while driving from Bozeman to MN and back and my body remembers what it's missing. Water is cheaper and healthier and I drink loads of it. But every once in a while I hear the siren song of the neon, yellow-ish, green-ish ambrosia from the pop machine here at work. So I grab the $.50 in my pocket and pony up for a few minutes of sweet sips.

P.S. Speaking of consuming healthy stuff right around my dental appointment: Two days ago I was sitting at home at lunch snacking on some Peanut Butter M&Ms (man, those things are tasty) when the phone rings. I pick up and as I pop one more M&M in my mouth the receptionist from the dentist's office tells me that I have an appointment the next day. I thought that was perfect timing.