So, if you also read Joe's blog, you've read about this. The H2O project. Joe's blogged about it eloquently so I'll skip all that and get straight to the bitching.
I really need coffee.
And no, I haven't cheated. Sunday evening I had a ritual last cup and made it all through yesterday. Today will be tougher. Not just because it is Day 2 but because it is a Dissertating Day, and I typically make it through the day on cups of coffee and not much else as I sit shackled to my computer and try to think thoughts at a speed that really requires some cyborg-type upgrading. I take a grudging break to slap together a sandwich at some point, generally, and then take it to the desk and cram it down while at the computer. Caffeine is sort of a requirement for this sort of crazed academic output.
I will probably have gained 5 pounds from the amount of compensatory chocolate I'll be consuming over the next two weeks.
I could just cheat, I know. But I have this feeling that the point is more than just collecting the money I'm (theoretically) saving by drinking only tap water for two weeks. I have this feeling that there's some good to this consistent reminder that my "right" to coffee is illusory and nothing more than my habitual expectation of a rather cosseted existence. Or that there will be, once I pass through the five stages of caffeine withdrawal (I'm out of "denial" and into "pissed off"--I wonder what comes next?)
4 comments:
IME, a 3-day-long migraine is what comes next.
Last Monday night I was working with a co-worker who had also worked the previous 10 hours, and he had been designated to drive that night. He decided it would be necessary to consume his weight in sugar, and then over the course of the night I saw him go through all the stages. It was quite exceptional. You still have bargaining, depression and acceptance to go. Good luck.
I've taken to drinking hot tap water out of coffee mugs so as to create the coffee moment, but skip the joe itself. It actually works!
Nate, my first year in China I discovered that people there actually drank hot water. In winter they were always telling me, you should drink hot water. (Also, you should put on more clothing...which always made me feel very skimpily clad no matter how many layers I had on.) I found it extremely odd and not at all pleasing to contemplate but really, not so bad once you get used to the idea.
Question: would it be cheating to add a slice of lemon?
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