Saturday, April 19, 2008

My Addiction


While The Great Magnetic Wife is out of town, I have had to fend for myself in the morning. Not so bad, I did it for years.  On Friday I made coffee and went to work.  At about 2:00, I started to not feel so great.  I was getting a headache and alternating between being really hot and freezing cold. I though, "oh, no, I have a fever.  I don't want to be sick." By the end of the workday, I was not feeling good at all. I just wanted to get home. I keep my bike at work during the week so that I can get in a ride afterwards.  I usually bring it home on Friday for my weekend long ride, but at that point I was not interested in doing anything, but getting in the car so that I could get home and go to bed.

I had plans that night to go to the House of Blues to see Ratt, but I realized that I wasn't going anywhere.  My head was pounding, I felt nauseous and all I wanted to do was to pass out.  It suddenly occurred to me that I had the symptoms that I have had before when I forgot to drink coffee. But I had had some coffee that morning.  Then the thought came into my head that perhaps I made decaf.  I looked at the bag of coffee, and there was no indication, but I know we have decaf around.  I made another pot of coffee from another bag that I knew was caffeinated as quickly as I could. But I knew from past experience it wasn't going to be a quick fix. It would still take a couple of hours for the sickness to go away. A call later in the evening from The Great Magnetic Wife confirmed that I had made decaf.

I am obviously addicted to caffeine. If I don't have it I get terrible withdrawal symptoms. It is funny, because coffee doesn't really give me a buzz. I drink it because I enjoy it and if I don't, I feel sick. But I don't drink a lot. I usually have one small cup in the morning and very rarely have any more during the day. I never crave it, I just like to have a cup. But the addiction is strong. It would be hard to go through complete withdrawal.

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