I Don't Need No Stinkin' No-Doze

At about 2:30 this morning - or 3:30, whatever stupid daylight savings time - I was still wide awake. In fact, I had stayed up working on various PTO and other things that needed to get done until almost midnight (old time), not realizing it was that late. It was great to get stuff done, but I'm a lady who needs her sleep, and I had to get up early to get to choir practice before church.

I finally laid down in bed close to midnight, but sleep just wasn't coming. No worries, I usually read something for a little bit and have the Food Network on for awhile in the background. I read three articles in Strategy & Business, which is usually more than enough to send me off to slumberland.

Nope, still awake, but I decided I at least needed to try to get some sleep, so I turned off the light and closed my eyes. Nothing. I tried doing breathing exercises and counting backwards slowly. Nope, still awake and not really interested in sleeping.

Now I was getting annoyed.

There was no sleep coming, and I didn't even feel tired. I could count the minutes ticking by though, and I couldn't shut my brain off. Just because I couldn't shut my brain off doesn't mean it was actually functioning, however.

If finally dawned on me as I was running through the things I needed to do today what I had done yesterday. I took the wee ones to the chiropractor. Then I went to choir practice. Then I started soliciting donations for the wee ones' preschool fundraiser.

A red flag finally went up.

I hadn't had time yesterday to eat by the time I was soliciting donations. And at 12:15, I was getting pretty hungry. And I happened to be at a Dunkin' Donuts / Baskin Robbins combo. You'd think that I'd go for a donut or some ice cream or maybe even a breakfast sandwich, right?

Yeah, not so much. Me, who doesn't get out to eat much, decided that the Iced Mocha Swirl sounded really good. And it could sorta count for my meal, too. Done and done.

Uhhh. Yeah. At about 3 or 3:30, I realized that the Iced Mocha Swirl I had so thoroughly enoyed contained caffeine. I don't consume caffeine. I don't drink pop, and I don't like coffee. And I fortunately don't eat enough chocolate to count.

A lesson for all. If you don't drink anything with caffeine on a regular basis, ingesting caffeine will really affect you. You won't be able to sleep. And you won't be tired. Well, at least not until the next day when you rue that caffeine and swear to yourself that you won't drink anything with caffeine in it again.

Especially not on the second Sunday in March when you're already losing an hour of sleep.

Lesson Learned

I'm not a coffee fan. To be honest, I don't like the way it tastes. It's bitter, and I never bothered to learn to like it. I know I'm in the distinct minority, but I never learned to like beer either, and I'm ok with that.



Don't get me wrong. I love the smell of coffee. And if you put it in ice cream, I'm all over it. But normal coffee? I'll pass. Of course, if you manage to sweeten it up and turn it into something that just happens to barely pass for coffee, then I can drink it and enjoy it.



I mentioned yesterday that we went to a lovely patisserie for breakfast. They happened to have caramel coffee there. It sounded good, and we were having a very special treat, so I got a mug of it. And yes, they put whipped cream in it. And I mean real whipped cream. As in: they took out a silver mixing bowl from the refrigerator and used a spatula to scoop some whipped cream onto the coffee.



As you might imagine, it was pretty good.



After we finished breakfast (and I finished my lovely caramelly coffee), my husband helped get the wee ones into the car, while I gave my mug back to the nice ladies at the counter. (Mister Man and my husband had already carried the plates inside to clear the rest of the table.)



One of the two lovely ladies asked me if I'd like a cup to go. When I looked at her quizically, she explained that they give free cups to go. Nice perk. I asked if I could get a cup for my husband, as well, since he'd probably kill me if I, the-woman-who-doesn't-drink-coffee, came out with a free refill and he had nada.



They graciously gave me my two cups to go -- and marked one with a pink dot so I could tell which was the yummy one and which was his -- and off we went to the parade.



So at 1am last night, who do you suppose was lying wide awake in bed cursing the caffeine?



Yeah, that would be me.



I really should know better. When we drove back from St Louis after Christmas last year, my husband graciously got me a Starbucks bottled thing from the gas station when he stopped. I drank it at 2pm and was still awake at 3am the next morning.



Apparently when you don't drink caffeine often, it tends to really affect you. That or I'm just super sensitive to it. Of course today was a day I was going into the office, which meant I was getting up at 5:30.



Good times when the alarm went off this morning, I'm telling you. Good times.



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Oh, and I stopped at Costco on my way home from work today to pick up some more cherries and some diapers and/or Pull-Ups for Little Miss for night time and nap time. I got my cherries and some water softener salt and a couple more very intriguing workbooks for Mister Man and some spinach asiago dip for the barbeque we're going to tomorrow night and talked to the mobile phone folks about switching to Verizon.



When I got home, my husband asked if I had a diaper handy for Little Miss, as we'd used the last one last night. Oops. I knew there was something I was forgetting. Fortunately, we had a diaper that just had a broken tab. Masking tape solved that problem.



At least until I go to Costco again tomorrow. Any guesses what I'll come home with?