caffeine shma-ffeine

When I was a teenager I remember boredom setting in around 9pm, we would all jump in the car (whoever had been able to bum a car from their parents of course) and we would head out to the starbucks. It was the only place--that we could find--where a bunch of underage kids could spend under $5 and stay for a few hours without getting harassed or kicked out. It was like heaven...For a teenager.

Now, I still enjoy a trip to the coffee shop, a relaxing chat and a cup of coffee, but unfortunately any trips made after 5:30pm now include the very important word-DECAF. Caffeine doesn't make me bounce off the walls or anything fabulously fun like that, so it's not even really that beneficial for me to drink it in the hopes of staying awake.

Nope, if I ingest caffeine after 5:30, I still get tired and sleepy by 11pm (like always) except when I get into bed my mind begins to wander. I contemplate all sorts of ridiculous things and then think they are clever and try to remember them, which only serves to keep my mind going. Next thing I know, it's 3am and I'm wide awake.

I've been lame like this for at least a couple years, but it rarely troubles me because once I figured out that drinking decaf still satisfied my urge for coffee but didn't keep me awake, I was happy to switch over my evening beverages.

For some reason, despite all this knowledge, I still found myself lying wide awake in my bed at 3am yesterday. Why you ask? Well as I enjoyed my feast of Chinese goodness last night (which my Popo fully cooked for the first time in years) the only beverage to choose from was good old Coca-Cola. I didn't even drink a whole one--and I always seem to think there is less caffeine in pop than coffee--so I figured "caffeine shma-ffeine and used the nasty dark stuff to wash my food down.

Lesson learned: half a pop at 7:30pm is just as bad as a cup of coffee at 5:30pm...