• Un-Caffeinated People Can’t Read

    Stardate 94202.47

    Dear Hyatt Hotel:

    I enjoyed spending my last night in New York at your establishment, including the complimentary breakfast. In the future, please make the distinction between the regular coffee and decaf coffee more obvious – with the visual equivalent of glitter and sirens.

    I’m sure Seattle’s Best Coffee put significant time and energy into making the labels on their dispensers beautiful, but the verbiage and coloration of the decaf coffee is too subtle for blurry-eyed un-caffeinated people. Before my first hit of caffeine all I can think is “Coffee-There-Gimme.” I barely had the mental capacity to properly put cream and sugar in my cup. (Shut up you people who drink it black.) I opened one of the mini-cups half-and-half and proceeded to pour its contents into the trash instead of my cup.

    Morning Coffee - My Vision is Too Blurry Before Caffeine to tell the Difference
    Morning Coffee – My Vision is Too Blurry before Caffeine to tell the Difference

    Your coffee is delicious. (Thank you for not carrying that Starschmucks swill.) Thank goodness I came by the coffee counter to top off my cup before heading back upstairs. (What is this “thank goodness” crap. Everyone knows I need more than 1 cup of coffee to start my day. I’m just being nice.) By then the smell of coffee and the carbs from your delicious pancakes connected my cerebral synapses long enough to detect the subtle green “decaf” sign on the dispenser where I poured my first cup. (I would have been hurting by 10am if I didn’t get my daily caffeine fix.) I immediately threw that first cup in the bin and pour myself a cup of real coffee.

    In the future, please make the distinction between the real-deal coffee and decaf so obvious that that that actual reading of the dispensers is not required. Put a space between the dispensers and label them with big signs – a neon rainbow-colored sign on the “Real Deal Coffee” (it will be a beacon to your caffeine-addicted patrons, something like “This is the coffee you’re looking for.”) and “I don’t know why anyone wants decaf but here you go” sign on the decaf.

  • Day 47/90 – Coffee

    Day 47 of the 90 Days of Awesome is in the bank! What made today awesome? Coffee!

    All my mugs for coffee are big.
    All my mugs for coffee are big.

    Some of you may not be aware of this, but I generally don’t sleep well. There are times I have terrible insomnia. Even when I get good sleep, it’s usually not great sleep. And even when I get to bed late or am up and down throughout the night, the alarm still goes off at 5:15 AM the next day.

    Needless to say, coffee is my friend. My day does not start without coffee. Coffee helps me human. I’m not a huge fan of the flavor of coffee (at least until I add cream and sugar), but I enjoy the effect and the feeling of having a warm mug in my hands. (When I travel, especially when I travel with friends, and I know there’s going to be time delay between waking up and getting coffee, I have a caffeine pill to tide me over. Yes, I know I’m addicted to caffeine, and I’m perfectly ok with that.)

    Earlier this year, my cardiologist put me on it GERD medication. It’s a pill I have to take first thing in the morning and then I’m not supposed to eat or drink anything for 20 minutes. So it’s a bit painful to go through the first 20 minutes of the morning without my caffeine friend. One of the advantages of having insomnia, is sometimes I wake up at 2 o’clock in the morning, and I will shuffle to the kitchen to take my GERD medication so I can have a cup of coffee first thing when my alarm goes off.

    I had a pretty good week, but also and exhausting week – couple of late nights and lots of client work. I was still exhausted when my alarm woke me up today. It was definitely going to be a 2 cups day, and by 2, I really mean 4 because I have a big mug. I had my first mug of coffee at home and refilled my mug before heading to the office.

    Sometimes I’m so tired in the morning, I take my coffee with me when I walked Rosie in the neighborhood. I think one of my neighbors gets a little jealous when he sees me sipping on my coffee while his is still brewing in his condo.

    In case you missed it: Day 46 of the 90 Days of Awesome – Helping Clients Resolve Problems.