I used to drink a pot of coffee a day. I mostly stopped because people I worked with asked me to...
I made the switch last year to decaf...I know, who even am I?
I also used to drink 27 (ok, that is an exaggeration, it was more like 7) diet cokes a day. I stopped that too (except on really bad days...).
All in all, good decisions for me.
However, I am still a procoffeeinator. And every single day, I procoffeeinate.
What is that?
Procoffeeination is the practice of not doing anything until I have coffee. Now, my coffee is less caffeinated than years past. But it is still the first and only thing that I want to do every morning (well, almost every morning...).
It is the taste. It is the ritual. And let’s not lie, it is also the caffeine working its way through my veins pumping me full of life and ambition. Since I switched to decaf, I do not spring out of bed and vacuum. My roll is slower these days and that is mostly for the good. Thank you Decaf!
Being a life long procoffeeinator, it was time for me to find out how to mellow. How to be still. How to lie in bed until 10 am on a Tuesday. And if I am fully caffeinated, there is no fucking way that is ever going to happen.
But regardless that my caffeine intake is down, I am still a
“Tumble out of bed
And stumble to the kitchen
Pour myself a cup of ambition
And yawn and stretch and try to come to life”
Thanks Dolly, you just have always gotten me.
There are so many things that I have had to give-up in this life: booze, cigarettes, meat, unhealthy relationships, the idea that I have any modicum of ability whatsoever to mollify my excessive behavior.
But whomever made decaf has my most heartfelt love and admiration. They did for me what I could not do for myself, start the day without coffee. Now, I can rise, imbibed and not wreck my life because I buzzing like a 747 at LAX. Now, coffee has become something better than I ever thought possible, part of my morning routine...that allows me to roll out with the dawning day. To be a part of something without completely taking it over and then crashing it to the ground.
I think (at least I hope) that I will always be a procoffeeinator...just with less caffeine. I always want coffee to be the first (well second, the dogs must go out) thing that I do everyday.
Lying in bed with my guy, waking up slowly to the day, having a nice visit from the cat, who seems to enjoy coffee time almost as much as we do. The lounging, the conversation, the snuggles. There is just so much of my life that I appreciate that only happens when I return to bed with that magic elixir that gives me permission, no in fact, demands my full attention, and causes me to “waste” the day away with all this idleness.
And I have come to adore this idle time. Sometimes I write, sometimes I read. Sometimes, well, you know. Coffee grants me permission to do absolutely nothing but take stock in this amazing life that I have. It is there while I type out my gratitudes (great and small) and today, it is at the top of my gratitude list.
I am a grateful, lazy procoffeeinator. And since I have reduced the caffeine intake, I can literally say that it is the best thing I do for myself daily: start my day in quite reflection for all that I have, all that I am, and all that I may be without the caffeine engine sending me into orbit.
Caffeine and I may have broken up, but coffee and I no way! Thank the Coffee Gods for making decaf and allowing me to continue this amazing life, one morning at a time, day after day, year after year.
Time to refill my cup and do a lot more of nothing this Christmas Eve morn. I wish you all a very Merry day today, may your mornings be bright and cheery and may your cup always be full of the java.
