My son found a new habit ...

My little boy is now a coffee drinker. Uh, let me rephrase: My little almost 15-year-old baby boy is now drinking coffee. Yeah, he woke up two days ago and poured himself a hot one … Mixing in milk and adding some sugar, he sat down and drank coffee as one who looked like he’d been drinking coffee his whole-hard-lived-long life.

No, I didn’t panic. But I did watch the drug invade my son’s body for the first time with horrified interest… And I started to think back to when I first started drinking coffee...

I was almost sixteen. I know this because I began working at Dunkin Donuts with my older sister (who got me the job) and, of course, drinking coffee was one of the “perks”… so I obliged and then became “hooked”--of course, isn’t that the way?

Light with cream and lots of sugar was how I first blended it. Almost like a creamy, coffee flavored dessert--a liquid donut, if you will…

Through the years following, I had stayed somewhat true to this sweet and light delicacy, while enjoying the caffeine (and sugar) rush, or high--however. Even when packed in a business conference room during my working years … I was always amazed at how people could actually drink coffee--black … What, no added creaminess or sweetness? It was usually on my mind next to eyeing the trays of freshly made gourmet sandwiches and other tasty desserts that accompanied our meetings. A nice distraction from listening to the world of investments: stocks, bonds and mutual funds …. ah, how boring; I don’t even know how I ever survived those years!! Thank the world for coffee!

It was also here that I was told that I wasn’t a true coffee drinker. Even though I "needed” the coffee in the morning and “enjoyed” it during my day to keep me moving and alert--just like them--the real coffee drinkers? I was told that I was a fraud; a fraud coffeeholic. Huh??? I wasn’t sure if I actually agreed with this mentality. I mean coffee drinking is coffee drinking, is it not? It starts off steaming hot and black, but so what if one adds in a hint of cream, or takes it with milk; mixes in some sugar; chooses it au lait, espresso, latte; or goes for the gold and adds in a shot of Bailey’s, oh, yum! --but, no matter--if you like or need coffee, then you are a true coffee drinker; a connoisseur; a dreamer of Juan Valdez dancing in your head … oh, well maybe that last one is going a bit too far!!

So now that coffee--and all of its funny nicknames: java--cup-o-joe, has so intrigued, seduced and captured my son with its bold, eye-wakening aroma; and who (from my observations) now wears the glowing, caffeine-induced “perky” smile; and has made this new leap--inching further into adulthood-- as the newest member of our zombie-like, ever-so-worshiping-our morning- drug world and its rituals. What else can I possibly say but--welcome, welcome to a new dawn, son… Welcome to the druggies’ world. There’s no turning back now …

Sigh.


Learn some fun coffee facts here and more here.