I first started drinking coffee in high school. I think I was about fifteen at the time and would sit at the local diner with friends. Fifteen and at a diner you ask? I grew up in a small town, the diner was far better then sitting at home with our parents; coffee was the most inexpensive item on the menu and we were allowed free refills - which made for excellent loitering conditions.

I started off drinking it black with sugar. I drank it that way for the better part of the next 5 years. Then when I started college someone bought me a double double and the rest was history.

I began to drink coffee incessantly while I started my first full time job. Coffee while I had a cigarette in hand just became part of my day, and there (at the time) was nothing like standing outside watching the sun rise, during the summer months, with a coffee - and cigarette - in hand.

Coffee and I went through a tumultuous time when I quit smoking. It became a love-hate relationship since I felt the need to light a cigarette every time I sipped that delectable nectar of the Gods. I, thankfully,  had enough willpower to cut it down to one cup a day (even had to cut out tea) while I fought the cravings for cigarettes. The only hot drink I could have without feeling the urge to smoke was hot chocolate - which to this day gives me an indescribably mellow feeling when I drink it. I think it’s just because it’s chocolate. I am a whore for chocolate.

Once I was able to drink coffee without feeling the unbearable urge to light up it became less of a vice for me. Can you believe that I didn’t own my very own coffee maker until three Christmases ago?  Seriously! Mike and I (truthfully, I would just bribe him into going for me) would go out every morning to the Tim Horton’s.

Now that we have our Very! Own! Coffeemaker! wouldn’t you know we still go to buy it in the morning? The only days that it’s made at home are the ones where I have both kids home - and we only buy the Tim Horton’s stuff.

This morning we were actually out of coffee. A sin in this house. I contemplated drinking the instant coffee that we have for when my parents come over.

Instant coffee is fuckin’ sick. It’s a disgrace to coffee. It’s more like watered down month old used coffee grinds with mulched up cow shit sprinkled throughout. (Descriptive enough?)

I filled the kettle with water and took the glass jar from the freezer. That’s as far as I got; I couldn’t bring myself to even spoon that crap into my cup. Instead it seemed far more intelligent to get both kids into their car seats and drive to the nearest drive thru - during the morning rush - and with a little bribery (Carter will do just about anything for chocolate milk.), it went off without a hitch.

I got my EXTRA large coffee and Carter got his chocolate milk.

All was right with the world.

Now if only I had been smart enough to buy a canister of coffee while at the drive thru. All this coffee talk has got me craving more.