Coffee.
I began my love affair with coffee at the age of 9. I was a persistant little shit, and kept bugging my mom to let me try it. She always bought the original 8 O'Clock, in the red bag. Whole bean, ground it at the store. I think she may have gotten Maxwell House a couple times, but for the most part, it was an 8 O'Clock household. Mom always drank her coffee black, and finally, after months (literally) of me begging and pleading, she let me have a cup, as long as I drank it black. If I was gonna drink coffee, it was gonna be coffee, make no mistake. No sugar, no cream, straight up.
I loved it. I don't know why. I'm an extremely picky eater. I'm always down to try something new, but there is a virtual laundry list of foods I don't like, including:
- any and all canned vegetables
- all cooked vegetables excluding potatoes and corn
- grain fed beef (I'll eat it, I just prefer grass-fed)
- bleu cheeses
- Dr. Pepper, root beer, and ginger ale
- artificial grape flavoring
- anything that's going to make me itchy (shellfish, of course)
- lamb
- canned fruit
- red wine
- white wine
- gin
- okra in all forms
- brussel sprouts in all forms
- de-podded peas
- asparagus
- adult spinach (I love baby spinach)
- beets
- turnips
- parsnips
- rutabagas
That's all I can think of off the top of my head. But coffee? Love at first taste. It was warm, it was dark, and it was so deliciously adult.
And then, after letting me try it a few more times, the corollary was drawn that Megan+coffee=Megan could focus. No more of that miniscule attention span stuff. It was great.
No, it didn't stunt my growth. Considering that neither of my parents is above 5'4" in height, and my mom is actually quite a bit shorter than 5'4", I'm pretty sure I was destined to be short. I hit my big growth spurt the summer between sixth and seventh grade - 4'3" to 4'10" in four months (which sucked). I grew another couple inches slowly, and then that stopped too.
When I was in high school, I was diagnosed with vasovagal syncope and the accompanying chronic low blood pressure. My cardiologist actually recommended coffee for those blood pressure drops that could and sometimes did lead to fainting spells. I was the only sophomore allowed to tote around an airpot full of hot black liquid gold.
When I was pregnant with Matthew, before my first appointment with my OB, I listened to someone - I forget who - who managed to convince me that if I drank coffee while I was pregnant, my baby would be undersized and hyperactive and colicky. I decided, two weeks before the appointment, to kick the coffee habit.
It did not go well.
I had the shakes. The headache. The entire order of my morning, no, my day was shot to pieces. No coffee. The pot sat there, empty, taunting me. I hate tea, every kind except peppermint, so I couldn't substitute. I can't handle all the sugar of hot cocoa in the morning, and a steaming hot cup of water just doesn't cut it. I was miserable.
Nerves replaced my usual caffeine the day of my first appointment. The doctor asked me at the end if I had any questions. That was my only one: "Will drinking coffee give me a colicky, small, hyperactive baby?"
He laughed.
He tried really hard not to laugh, I'll give him credit. He told me too much coffee or caffeine would not be good for the baby growing inside me, but that one or two cups a day would be fine, as long as I wasn't drinking two of those giant 32 oz 7-11 coffees. When pressed for an exact amount, he said to keep it under 32 oz of caffeinated beverage intake a day. That I could do. And I did. And Matthew was neither colicky nor hyperactive, and small only because I am small.
And coffee and I have not been parted since. In fact, I invested in a Keurig pot with a reservoir at tax time this year. I have an adaptor so I can use my own grounds instead of the pods, if I so desire. And my awesome uncle Phil up in Canada sent me a big bag of Tim Horton's coffee, that tastes so good when brewed with the Keurig.
Coffee, how I love thee.
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