in which i make a discovery, and attempt to discipline myself

[ontology]

I have discovered a marvellous thing. It is called morning coffee.

(Picture here, if you will, my parents laughing uproariously at me, as they have been trying to get me to drink coffee most of my life, it seems.)

Somehow in the last few weeks it has gone from a bitter, unfriendly, if glorious-smelling, concoction to the epitome of deliciousness. I think I must have gone for it again out of sheer desperation on one of the mornings I was trying to turn back into a person who sleeps normally by not fumbling through sleeping and awake-but-dizzy until four in the afternoon or so, and dumped loads of milk and sugar in it, and lo! It was very nearly palatable. Very nearly. (On New Year's Day, when I downed a cup to get me through an afternoon of work at the deathly boring kiosk after staying up very very late with the usual lot, I spent the entire cup stalking through the house, gulping it down and shouting bleah!) And then I tried it again the next morning. Before I knew what had happened to my unsuspecting tastebuds, I was in love.

It helps that I have my own very pretty Art Nouveau mug in which to drink it every morning. But aside from the fetching mug, the flavour! It is so wonderful and cosy! The caffeine! It is so fantastic and day-starting and inspiration-bringing! 

I do not have a morning newspaper, and I prefer to read novels on my stomach, so what I am trying out now, after the ten minutes it usually takes me to read my email and all of the Twitter that happened during the night, is writing. By "trying", I mean "I've done it a couple of times this week", but it is working out rather all right. And the jump of caffeine has my brain all energised and ready to think of interesting things. I am on my forty-second page! It took me three months once to write a nine-page short story! I am improving! (Meanwhile, Catherynne M. Valente Twitters that she has finished writing her splendiferous online serial novel The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland, which she started a mere couple of months ago. I flush emerald.) 

And my last gulp of coffee has gone cold, Evangeline needs to finish being unconscious, and a large black cat has made himself comfortable in my lap. It's a fey, misty morning -- you can smell Autumn coming, even when you don't hear it in the farewell calls of nightflying geese and the wuthering of the wind, or glimpse it in the brief glimmer of red and gold hidden in the furthest branches of the trees.

Comments

[greyeyedpixie.livejournal.com]

Morning coffee is a glorious thing~ :)

[pearlessence.livejournal.com]

I have just now realized I have three tea icons and no coffee icons. For shame, self.

Hurrah for your discovery! Coffee is a glorious, glorious thing, whether it's sipped morning or night. Caffeine is also a marvelous thing. Unfortunately, caffeine no longer has any effect on me, as I've been drinking coffee since I was very small, but it remains one of my very favorite things in the entire world.

And I have started The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland, and am already enchanted.

[travellers-home.livejournal.com]

Coffee is indeed wondrous. A tip if you're just starting out and find it too bitter: flavoured syrups. You can get a bottle at pretty much any grocer, though shopping round a bit may get you larger bottles for a cheaper price. A couple spoonfuls of syrup will take the edge off the coffee taste, and add a bit of extra flavour. :)

Special coffee cups are excellent... my coffee mug is one I bought while I was studying in Leeds, and the design is called "Surrey Woodland" and has various flowers/herbs/plants native to southern England, with scripty hand-written notes about each. I harth it muchly.

[tsunamisama.livejournal.com]

Watch for addiction. You think you can have sucky mornings now? Try a sucky morning without your daily dose of chemical stimulants. Coffee is a wonderful thing -- chemical dependency, not so much.

[lady-moriel.livejournal.com]

I'm sort of thinking that either caffeine doesn't have much effect on me or I've somehow already managed to get myself addicted to the point of needing more caffeine, because while I still don't drink coffee, I've been having tea and Excedrin pretty regularly in the mornings for...uh. Has it been all summer? That...is not so good. Tea + excedrin = about 100 mg of caffeine, I think? Which is about the same or maybe more than a cup of coffee. That could explain why it doesn't seem to be doing much to wake me up or take off my headaches, even if maybe it takes the edge off. Although Coke does seem to be effective at times. I don't even know, really.

I...need to write more. "Moonstruck" needs finishing, for instance, if I can just turn the "oh hai I found a cure" thing into something that makes sense. Although I am actually writing an RT fic, and I've realized I have bits of other things (like a Tom/Martha fic that...I don't really know where I was going with, now) I should type up.

[sirwynai.livejournal.com]

You know what is also good with coffee? Chocolate syrup. I love my coffee with lots of Chocolate and Milk, although I don't drink it too often. For mornings I generally turn on my laptop and spend my time reading until my brain catches up. I have no idea what my writing would be like when I'm not awake, although some of the stuff that I've written when I'm half asleep at night is pretty off the wall.

:D