I don’t sleep anymore; long gone are the days of leisurely evenings spent relaxing in bed with a book, sleeping for longer than an hour or two at a time, and general evening comfort.
All this has been replaced with waking up at random times during the night in fight or flight “where do I need to be” mode, cold noses finding their way to the warmest part of my back because one of the dogs either needs out or they think it’s funny to see me jump a foot in the air in the middle of the night, La Niña crying out because she’s had a nightmare, or my brain is simply moving too fast to slow down.
Because I need stimulants to keep me awake during the day my coffee intake has been off the scale; and, Red Headed Rick Moranis Barista Man (RHRMBM) has moved on to either bigger and better things or he’s switched shifts with someone else; that is very dismaying.
On one particularly sleepy day I had my coffee in hand, went from doing the accounting, answering emails and into the boardroom for a meeting. Because I was in such a rush to get to this sales meeting instead of grabbing my coffee cup I grabbed my travel coffee mug; the one that’s been sitting unused for two weeks on my desk.
Just as I sat down for the meeting I took a swig of my coffee and instantly wondered why it was cold and carbonated like pop. Then I realized my cappuccino was a fermented-mold-a-ccino.
There was a long but dignified pause where I tried to decide whether to make a scene and spit the coffee out or finish the process of drinking it; the internal debate probably only occurred for a second or two but it seemed like an eternity until I finally decided to just drink what was already in my mouth.
I then made an excuse about grabbing a business card and found my real coffee. I promptly rinsed my mouth out with the real cappuccino and went back to the meeting. I had a hard time concentrating because all I could think about was the cold and carbonated coffee and whether or not I would get sick.