I didn't begin drinking coffee until I was in college at Michigan State, and back then it was only for the caffeine and not for any real enjoyment. At the time, I had no taste in coffee, and I thought that the powdered flavored crap was actually rather fancy and classy. I can still remember late nights boiling water in an electric water pot and mixing in that dreadful caffeinated powder.
My most intense memory of drinking coffee in college took place in March 1989: Winter term finals week. That term, I took a political science class that dealt with the American electoral process. Among the required reading was a book called Change and Continuity in the 1984 Elections. Our professor warned us that about 80 percent of our final exam would come from that book. Now had I actually read the book? Why, of course not! Mr. Procrastinator here had spent far too much valuable time doing God knows what (probably watching The Young and the Restless and drinking my preferred beverage of that era, beer). The night before my final exam, I knew I had to read that entire book before the exam. The only way to do it was to "pull an all-nighter" and the only way I was going to be able to do this was to drink copious amounts of black coffee.
I found myself a table in the Shaw Hall cafeteria, which was always open all night as a study hall, and took advantage of the free residence hall coffee that was offered during finals week. I have no idea how many cups of coffee I drank during that all-nighter, but I would venture to guess I was guzzling anywhere between 16-24 ounces of java per hour, from about 9:00 PM until 6:00 AM...and guess what, I read that entire book, which was probably about 250 pages in length. Not only did I read it, but I absorbed it like a sponge. My overcharged, caffeine-saturated brain devoured that book like it was the most fascinating tome ever written by humankind.
My political science final exam was early the next morning (7:30? 8:00? I can't remember the exact time anymore). The bad part was that by the time the final started, my caffeine buzz was wearing off and I was feeling myself get very tired. I was fighting to keep my eyes open, and at one point in the final felt myself falling asleep at my desk. I must have made some strange noise because a girl looked over at me with a look equal parts concern and horror. Thankfully, I managed to stay awake through the entire final and I'll be damned if that professor didn't tell us the exact truth. At least 80 percent of that final exam was taken from Change and Continuity in the 1984 Elections.
It was with a tremendous feeling of relief that I stumbled back to Shaw Hall from my poli sci final. It was my last final of the term, and I had only to wait for my mom to come and pick me up from school and take me home to Caro for spring break. Unfortunately, by this point I was beginning to experience the onset of one of the most awful headaches I've ever had from lack of sleep and far too much caffeine.
Now one might think that this headache would turn me off to coffee. Actually, I felt as though coffee had helped to save my ass, and that's when I decided that coffee was a pretty damned good thing. I ended up with a 4.0 on my final exam (in the MSU grading system, equivalent to an A) and received a 3.5 in the class.
It wasn't until I worked at Schuler Books in the 1990s that I developed any real taste for fine coffee, and over the years I've become a genuine coffee snob. I absolutely refuse to drink the dreck that is our office coffee at work, and generally stop at Biggby or Starbucks while on my way to work each and every morning. (I don't like the way my homebrewed coffee tasted in travel mugs, so I'd rather buy it at a coffee shop). My preferred drinks of choice these days are Americanos and red eyes. An Americano is two or more shots of espresso combined with hot water (or cold water if one prefers it iced). Red eyes are two or more shots of espresso combined with coffee. During the summer, I ONLY drink iced coffee. Beginning around the second week of September, I switch over to hot coffee. It's amazing (and a little unsettling) to me how quickly I decided that it's time to switch from iced to hot coffee in the Fall, and from hot to iced coffee in the late Spring.
My wife is also a huge coffee drinker and a coffee snob on par with myself. I joke that we are enablers and co-dependent, because we constantly suggest trips to Biggby to get coffee. It doesn't help that we are always filling up our frequency cards, and that Biggby sends us coffee junkies email coupons that we naturally feel compelled to use. Did I mention that we have a Biggby Coffee that is within 5 minutes walking distance from our house?
Well, that's my coffee addiction story. I suppose that there are far worse vices one could have, so I'll be quite content to stick with coffee.
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