Sunday, March 15, 2009

Coffee- Part One

Like all good drug stories this one begins with a girl. She was tall, blond and beautiful but bridged the gap between prom queen and indie rock goddess. The place was Delaware and the year was 1992.

I was 17 and despite a pretty shaky start in high school in terms of height, coolness and fashion sense I had somehow pulled it together well enough to get this girl, at least for a little while.
Graduation was looming in the near horizon and I had already determined I was going to go as far away from Delaware as possible to the biggest city I could find. But there was still one thing Delaware would introduce me to before we parted ways: coffee.

Now I grew up in a coffee-drinking household. My Mom still faithfully has two cups a day and I remember trying it when I was a kid. It was beyond my comprehension how anyone could drink this fowl, dark bitter madness. But a pretty girl can make a young man reconsider a lot of things
So on one cool spring morning the girl and I ditched school and found ourselves in one of the only options to get a quick hit of coffee at the time: 7/11.

While I was first resistant, she assured me that with enough creamers and sugar it tasted great. I think I must have put in 5 or 6 creamers and just as many sugars until the whole substance was a light beige color. I brought it towards my lips and hoped it was at least palatable enough for me to pretend to enjoy it. I didn’t want to disappoint this girl.
I took a sip.

From that Styrofoam cup I first tasted the silky smooth and sweet flavor mixed in with a strong full burst of hot liquid that I would come to know so well. I drank it up eagerly, savoring the taste and breathing in the smell. I couldn’t believe this was the same glorious liquid that I had rejected so many years. My Mom had an insight that I was only beginning to discover.
But it wasn’t just the taste of the coffee that intrigued me. Soon I noticed another effect. There was suddenly a wave of flushed energy in my face as I felt the source of coffee’s power fully kick in.

This was my first experience with caffeine. I remember having this nervous, excited and hopeful feeling, but didn’t think much of it at the time, figuring the girl, ditching school and heading to Los Angeles would make any young man feel this way.
It was only when all those things changed that I realized it was the coffee, not where I was that mattered.

Part two:
Coffee and the lonely college years

2 comments:

  1. who needs a girl when you have coffee? is that kind of what yer saying?

    ReplyDelete