Adventure Day: Nine Days Without Coffee

Alright, so not exactly the photo essay of the awesome places I explore I usually give you but it was an adventure. As stated in my post "Caffeine Withdrawal" I gave up caffeine for nine days because, well, I was having problems. It went a little something like this:

Day 1: Well. This isn't so bad. No symptoms as of yet. Maybe I was over-attributing my headaches to the coffee. It could have been stress. Oh well, I'll just keep going since it's probably a healthy idea to detox the caffeine in my system anyways.

Day 2: AAAAAAAAAAAAA! The PAIN. This is the MOTHER OF ALL HEADACHES EVER. WHY? WHY! WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHY!!!!!!!

Day 3: I hurt everywhere. What the &$#%! was I thinking? Who does this to themselves? Me. That's who. I'm a &$#%! idiot.

Day 4: Silent weeping when I realize my pain relief medicine has caffeine in it.

Day 5: I lost this day somewhere. I seriously went to sleep Tuesday and woke up Thursday or something. No idea what happened to Wednesday. None.

Day 6: I should clean the kitchen. No. Wait. The bathroom. LET'S GO FOR A WALK! My laundry needs to be done. OOO! KITTY! Hey! What's that shiny thing? LOOK AT THIS MAGNIFICENT ROCK. LOOK AT IT! Did I leave the stove on? (The answer was yes, yes I did...derp)

Day 7: Woke up, walked down stairs, took nap on couch. Woke up, ate bowl of cereal, took another nap. Woke up, watched TV, took nap. Woke up, went to bed.

Day 8: 36 hours 21 minutes and 30 seconds until I can have coffee again...36 hours 21 minutes and 29 seconds until I can have coffee again...36 hours 21 minutes and 28 seconds until I can have coffee again...

Day 9: Maybe if I play video games all day I won't notice HOW SLOW TIME SEEMS TO BE PASSING

Day 10: COFFEE MY LOVE! Let us never be apart again <3

I never want to go through that again. Never. It was awful. The most surprising thing is that even when the symptoms of withdrawal subsided, I still wanted coffee. I did not realize how much a part of my life the drink had become, often substituting a large cup of java for meals or using it as a motivational tool to get something done like chores or homework. Even as I sit here typing this I am being kept company by a travel mug of coffee.

Although I will probably never quite again for anything short of religious or medical reasons, I am moderating my intake of caffeine now. I'm giving up the Diet Coke permanently along with most other caffeinated sodas (the exception being Taco Bell's Baja Blast Mountain Dew because, delicious) and am only brewing one 32  oz pot of regular a day with decaf coffee making itself a new staple in my pantry. I learned a lot about myself during this experiment and probably a lot about addiction.

This Ain't Yo' Momma's House: The Myth of Later

There are a lot of things about keeping house that I learned when I acquired a household of my own. Tips and tricks for making chores easier, things look cleaner and stretch budgets further. The single most important thing I learned though, was the myth of later.

As a teen I was constantly frustrated when my parents would hassle me to do the dishes or mow the lawn. It wasn't like I wasn't planning to do it, I just didn't want to right then. I would do it later, after I read one more chapter or wrote one more poem (yeah, I was one of those teens) or beat the water-temple.

When I moved into my first apartment, one of the things I was excited about was being able to do my chores when I wanted to. There is a fatal logic flaw there. I could wait a million years and I will never want to do chores. There will always be a more interesting book, exciting video game or sardonic couplet to pursue.

Dishes piled in the sink, cobwebs collected in the corner, laundry splayed all over the floor. Sure, once in awhile I would realize I was living in a sty and go on a cleaning binge, but it was not a consistent state. I was not alone in this affliction. I have seen houses where 'later' never comes. Dishes that have been in the sink so long civilizations have risen and fallen subsiding off of 6 month old chicken dinner. Bathtubs mold has eaten away the caulk and now the wall behind is rotting away. Toilets literally covered in crap. Still, the people living in these conditions continue to lie to themselves: "I'll do it later."

I finally realized I was lying to myself about later (after I learned to identify exactly what rotten chicken smells like). Chores are something you have to plan to do weekly. For me, that means setting a day for it. Adding it to the schedule with definite time and date instead of the nebulous "later". Granted this usually means things like vacuuming when I run out of underwear and have to do laundry and cleaning the bathroom on garbage day for me since I don't do the calendar date thing so well, but it's a specific moment.

So this is my first housekeeping advice to my fellow twenty-somethings: "Later" is a lie. Unlike the cake. The cake is delicious.

Georgia

Voice Recorder >>

So I got introduced to this website recently and have been sending songs back and forth with a friend because we're dorks. I thought I would share my wonderful and off-key voice with you people because I know my audience. My audience is my mom. (Hi Mom!)

On a related note, I need some suggestions for new artist crushes. Heck, I'll even take guest articles at this point. If ya'll could hook me up with links to someone who's artwork makes you go "Hngh" it would be much appreciated!

Caffeine Withdrawal

As some of you know (and the rest of you do now too, yay!) I decided to do a little caffeine detox starting Thursday. The reason behind this is it was taking two pots of coffee and several cans of Diet Coke just to stave off the headache.

First stop was a little research. Caffeine stays active in the system for six hours, but withdrawal symptoms can last anywhere between 2 and 9 days. I decided to cut the java cold turkey for nine days.

I had no idea how hard it is to not drink coffee. Even without the negative side effects of not ingesting my daily dose of java it's hard to go without it in the morning. There's nothing like the flavor or aroma, and there fore no replacement.

So far I'm on day four. It isn't fun, but it's getting better. I'll be back with a full nine-day report when I finish this little dietary experiment. But until the headaches, inability to focus and joint pain go away (all withdrawal symptoms. Fun, right?) I doubt I'll be getting very many blog posts in. Not any coherent ones at any rate.

It's Coming...

Are you ready? Classes are almost out and I think that means it's time for the return of Adventure Day. I know you missed it, and this once-weekly post thing is really cramping you're reading style, isn't it? So starting on the 30th not only will you be seeing the return of Adventure Day, but also New Artist Crush and Random Word Generated Friday. I'm also adding a new feature This Ain't Yo Mamma's House dedicated to my 20-something peers who are living on their own and continually confused as to why the dishes aren't disappearing from the sink.

Excited yet? I know you are.

How StarCraft Almost Turned Me Into A Hobo

So I was going through old blog posts (ah, memories), and realized that I had promised to tell you about my trip home from California, but never did. Bet you're still on the edge of your seats (or, you know, most likely not)

Since my buddies William and Nate were to return home without me, I had purchased Amtrak tickets home from Fresno to Chicago, then from Chicago to Ann Arbor where I was going to catch a ride home with one of my best friends and his mom.

Let me start with this: Amtrak is the most comfortable way to travel. Not the fastest, not the most convenient, but the most comfortable. It's also amazingly beautiful.

I will never understand people who think this is boring. Never.

Taking the train is a great way to meet people. I sat next to a woman from Seattle who used to work the switchboard in the Navy, then eventually was in counseling. She ended up asking for my e-mail to give to one of her grandsons. Whilst I'm glad my grandmother and mother don't do that to me (thank you by the way mom), I thought it was cute and acquiesced (and no, I never got an e-mail either). From Denver I sat next to a woman who ran a small newspaper and was in the arts. She slept most of the trip, but it was nice talking to her when she was awake since we had a shared interest in art.

Dear Internet...excuse me but, what are you doing?

So...I'm just going to go ahead and cross "pug" off the list of possible dogs I would like to own. There is no way I am sewing it a countess costume and I wouldn't want my dog to get an inferiority complex.