MY DRUG ADDICTION

I've got a bad feeling about today, don't know why, I just woke up thinking 'this is going to be a bad day'.  I try not to take those kinds of feelings too seriously, seems when you worry too much about predictions and premonitions you inadvertantly make them come true. 

So anyhow, here I sit, sipping on a dainty mug of coffee when what I really wanted to do was to just dump a bunch of creamer in and drink directly from the coffee pot.  Actually that would have been more logical in the first place since I will end up drinking the whole pot of coffee before I leave for work in 2 hours.  Oh, and as for all that mumbo jumbo about coffee stunting your growth... not true at all!  I am still growing!  My vertical growth has slowed down somewhat but my horizontal circumference is steadily increasing.  And the caffeine is keeping my mind sharp.  I would not have been able to write or even understand this whole paragraph without being under the influence of caffeine.

Did you know caffeine was a drug?  I knew it was.... sort of, kind of like vitamin C is a drug... you just don't think of it as a 'drug'.  One afternoon after school as I sat at the table with the kids and their homework, my coffee mug full and steaming, my daughter looked at me and asked me why I drank coffee.  I told her that I liked the taste and she started crying because she didn't want me to be a drug addict.  I was completely thrown off balance because its a well know fact that I HATE drugs, and even had a problem with birth control pills which is why I have 5 kids instead of just 2....  So I calm her down and ask her where she got the idea I was a drug addict.  She pointed to my coffee cup. 

'Caffeine' she pouted.  Give me a break!  Thats a bit extreme to be teaching in school.  But all I could say was: guilty as charged.  I found out that nicotine is also taught as a drug that is abused by the new cirriculum, and while I don't smoke, and I appreciate that there is an anti-smoking campaign going on in the schools, I think it is really wrong to link cigarette smokers and coffee drinkers with the abusers of drugs such as cocaine and prescription drugs.  I am not a drug addict dangit!  I need some more coffee, sheesh!

Actually I've been drinking coffee since I was a child.  My parents were habitual coffee drinkers, I guess its in my genes because they drank coffee like some people drink soda pop.  They always had a cup before going to bed and would leave their coffee cups on the coffee table.  I, being the first one up, would finish off any left overs first thing in the morning.  I remember once finding a fly floating in one of the cups, and I merely scooped it out, flung it in the trash and drank the coffee anyway.  I think that was probably the first sign of my addiction.  I was 6 years old.

So here I am, almost 40 years later, and still drinking coffee like a fish drinks water.  Whoa, wait a minute... you know I've always heard that expression... like a fish drinks water... but has it actually been determined that fish do in fact drink water?  I find that really disturbing because they pee and doodie in that water, why would they turn around and drink it?  Yuck.  If I were a fish I'd probably die from dehydration!  Unless I were in a fish bowl full of coffee.

J