Caffeine – my new mode of survival.

I am not, and I repeat, not, an early riser on my own. If it were up to me, most days would be spent sleeping until a minimum of 10:30 a.m. and include a leisurely shower, blowdry, and nice breakfast before stepping out of my house looking perfectly coiffed and ready to go for the rest of the day. But, this summer, I’ve been challenged. Working every day Monday through Friday from 8 am to 5 pm is that very challenge. No time for leisurely showers and blowdrying my hair, no time to grab coffee before I leave the house, barely enough time to even fix some breakfast or my lunch. That is why, my friends, I have come to rely on our good old friend, caffeine, primarily in three forms – Diet Sun Drop, sweet tea, and coffee.

1 – Diet Sun Drop – This is the form of my caffeine intake of which my friends make the most fun of me about. Diet Sun Drop (before its annoying nationwide commercials with Tracy Morgan that have “drop it like it’s hot” in them and availability across the nation) was a diet soda available only in North Carolina and in my hometown of Franklin, Virginia at a convenience store entitled Strickland’s and our local Food Lion. Before I became a coffee drinker, this was the way that I got through those crazy exam periods, through early morning classes, and particularly, my beverage of choice when I’m at the beach with my family (t-9 days until Duck, North Carolina, PTL). when interviewing for my position, my boss (and her co-interviewer) asked me – “so Kylee, if you’re having a bad day, what are you going to turn to?” without even thinking, my response was, “Well, first I’d reach for a bottle of Diet Sun Drop that I’d likely have in the fridge as a pick-me-up, but then if that didn’t work I’d…” – the power of a bottle of Diet Sun Drop.

2 – Sweet tea – this is my all-time favorite drink, particularly at restaurants across the south and in my hometown. I was devastated when I found out that we didn’t have sweet tea available on campus (other than the disgusting Goldpeak fake sweetened lemon tea which makes my stomach nauseous), and now rely on going out to places like Panera Bread, Baker’s Crust, and other great restaurants in order to get it, but nothing is quite like walking into Fred’s or For Pete’s Sake at home and having the waitress know me well enough to know that she should just go ahead and bring the pitcher to the table… 🙂 One of my favorite quotes from a book I read last summer (that clearly relates to sweet tea) is as follows – “‘down here,’ she said with a sweet southern smile and pointing straight down through the table, ‘Iced tea is not a drink. It’s not even a refreshment. And it’s certainly not something that causes you to fall backwards into a pool…it’s a religion. And you either practice or you don’t.’”

3 – Coffee – I was never a coffee drinker. In fact, in my college “optional submission,” I mentioned that I’m one of those people who loves the smell of coffee in the morning, but can’t bear the taste. Not anymore. My sister and her fiancé introduced me to the magic of french press coffee, and with the right amount of half-and-half and brown sugar, I’ve been hooked ever since. I love my little green bodum french press more than life itself, and I even have a pretty sweet little green W&M polka dot travel mug that my brother gave me for Christmas that I take to work every day! My coffee of the moment is the french roast from New England Coffee Company, and I just tried it for the first time this morning, and I like it! Yum.

Maybe this blogpost seems a little silly, but caffeine is now my inanimate best friend, and without it, I don’t know if I would make it through most of my 8-5 days! This week is full of lots of things – a cookout tonight, an old teacher coming into town tomorrow, a night out in Virginia Beach on Wednesday, GRE prep and Harry Potter premiere on Thursday, and my best friend from freshman year coming on Friday! How much better can it get?

xoxo.

Kylee