As you know (heh, I love saying that), I have given up the Caffeine. The Caffeine is a false friend. It only took me about forty years to figure that out.

There are exceptions, of course. There are always exceptions, like the Chocolate Cake Exemption from any and all diets. One Mountain Dew per day is my exception from the rejection of the Caffeine. It's the nectar of the lesser deities. It's not exactly necessary, but I think it's beneficial. I'm happier with it than without it.

My other exception is that one morning per week I have a coffee date. It's not a "date" date, just an informal meeting with a friend (a real friend, in this case). We usually talk on the phone to confirm that we're getting together on Friday morning. That didn't happen today, but I went anyway, just in case.

I wasn't about to be the one who didn't show up. I mean, I didn't expect my friend to be there, because we hadn't talked about it. But I'm just insecure enough to feel I need to put in an appearance. Whenever something like this happens, I always assume that the other person has a perfectly good reason for not being able to be there. And I always assume that whatever my reason is, it's not good enough. So I went and drank my one cup of coffee for the week.

Besides, I needed that one cup of coffee. By Friday morning, after a week of getting up way too early every day, I'm ready for a little shot of the Caffeine, friend or no friend.

So I sat alone in the coffee shop, surrounded by strangers. It was the most peaceful few minutes I've spent all week, and well worth sitting through Sebastopol's first traffic light during three cycles just to get there. It perked me up quite nicely (the coffee, not the stoplight).