Addiction

This morning I needed coffee. I needed coffee badly.

Despite getting up at 4.30, drinking tea, working out for an hour, and
reading CSB on the train, when I arrived at work, I was totally and
completely brain-dead.

Lines at the Starbucks in the building are huge, and I couldn't fathom
standing in it. So I did the unthinkable: I drank coffee from the office
coffee maker. Now, I have to say that it isn't the coffee itself that
makes this an unpleasant experience. We have one of those nifty machines
that brews one cup at a time. It is a decent cup, honestly. But see, I
simply cannot drink black coffee anymore, and it has to be diluted, or
my stomach will release the hounds of hell. I like my coffee diluted
with non-fat dairy products. All we have is powdered coffee-mate and two
kinds of flavored liquid coffee stuff that has oil in it, but no dairy.
Faced with this grim reality, I sucked it up. I made the coffee, added a
little hot water to the powdered coffee-mate, and poured it in.

And you know what? It isn't horrible. I wouldn't go as far as to say it
was completely enjoyable, but it was palatable. Maybe it has something
to do with the 3.5 fat grams in the powdered chemicals, I don't know -
fat is a flavor carrier, after all. This concoction has managed to fool
my brain into action, but will it fool my stomach into not over reacting
and releasing hell's fury like it does when I drink black coffee?

Thanks to all three of you who gave me ideas for my new domain name.
I'll check the comments again tonight for any last-minute ideas, and
register my new domain name. I think I'm going with fredthewebsite. I
have to go and find the *perfect* prize for Bet -- after all, it was her
idea.