You know, before I started with this entry, I sat her for like ten minutes trying to think of a name for it. I wanted something "not so random". Then I started thinking, there really are not any pretty dress-me-up words for this thing. This thing that keeps me up from 12 :00 - 3:00 a.m. It's called caffeine. And wait! Before you tell me you completely understand, it's not coffee I am talking about here.
You would think that the way my skin reacted would have stopped me at 19 years old when this all started. It didn't. I just kept going. Kept going until most of the baristas from the Starbucks on Wilshire (yeah that one right across the street from the Peninsula Hotel) to the one in Big Bear, Ca knew me by name. Think I'm joking??? I'm not. Really. The Starbucks in Ladera Ranch, Ca knew me the best and I would definitely say they by far, have the best service. You see, that location was "very open". If sitting at a certain table, you could see everyone who walked up. Ditto for the coffee making area. So every morning I would make my sacred pilgrimage to get my Venti X-hot White Mocha with 5 pumps of Raspberry. There it was.
Barista: "Venti X-hot White Mocha with 5 pumps of Raspberry???"
Me "...yes"
Barista: "Here you go."
Me: "gee, thanks."
That precise butler type of coffee making quickly disappeared when I became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka LDS), because in order to remain fully obedient, I must not drink coffee.
Fine.
That's just fine.
And what I am about to explain really was not intentional. I do sense though that I somehow willed it into my existence but that's a completely different post.
You would think my newly found faith would have killed my caffeine habit, but it didn't. I found it in a pill form called Rhodiola that I so conveinently sell. That stuff worked great, but I missed my transic type of warm-sipping 10-minute detachment from my actual reality that I use to find so comforting through the act of sipping the dark stuff.
So, on with the search for another warm concoction that was acceptable with The Word of Wisdom. I knew I could drink hot chocolate, so I started there. While at Jensen's one day, I was browsing the hot chocolate varieties and noticed another Swiss Miss addition called Pick-Me-Up.
"Pick-Me-Up, with as much caffeine as a cup of coffee."
***Bingo!
***Shazam!
Someone alert the press.
I bought every package they had and took them home.
Long story short, I drink caffeinated hot chocolate every day.
Do I feel like I am cheating??? Yeah. But until I hear a message that comes straight from our prophet about the disbanding of this product, it'll be a staple in my house.
And for those of you who feel compelled to pray about my "addiction" please do!
