PICTURES OF THE WEEK
An angel at the Palace of Fine Arts. I was fascinated that a face sculpted in 1915 looked so familiar. Also learned that the Palace of Fine Arts was just one of many palaces that was built for the Panama-Pacific International Expo. The buildings went from Ft. Mason to the Presidio. Also, learned the expo ran most of the year! Such an impressive scale!
My Phantom Limb is a Cappuccino
Or, how I forgot my way into quitting coffee...
So, it seems I quit drinking coffee, and caffeine in general. I didn’t intend to! I just sort of “forgot” my way in to it.
Here’s what happened: When I go in to work, I usually grab a cappuccino on the way in, and I’d get one for the afternoon sometime before 4:30. This is on top of an occasional half cup of office coffee or cup of tea.
But, I’ve been working from home for the last week or so, and besides making myself leave the house in the morning to go get coffee (and mentally “walk to the office”) I haven’t been drinking afternoon caffeine. I noticed a few times that I missed my 4:30 cut off to get a coffee, but didn’t think much of it. Until I started getting MASSIVE headaches. I tried all my normal anti-headache tricks, but nothing made them go away, UNTIL I GOT A COFFEE…
This made me realize a few things:
A) I’m totally addicted to coffee,
B) I’m already in the middle of cutting down and quitting and probably have gone through the worst of the headaches,
C) Since I am working from home / staycationing now is the perfect time to quit, D) I guess that means I’ve already had my last coffee for at least a few months,
E) Might as well quit dairy too (at least make it a VERY OCCASIONAL “sometimes” food) while I am at it as the only reason I haven’t is because of coffee.
Who knows if it will stick? I’ve relied on coffee in the past to help with my mood, but as I’ve cut out sugar already and my mood is MUCH more stable, maybe cutting out coffee isn’t such a bad thing. I have been hitting a “wall” around 4:30 / 5 PM, so I’ve been ducking out of things for a nap instead of grabbing a cup of coffee. Not sure how that strategy will work out when I am back in the office! But, hopefully I’ll be down the worst part of the withdraw curve by then.
What is weird is how programmed I am to go and get a coffee when I walk around the neighborhood - it’s like I have a phantom limb: I feel this extension of myself as I walk past coffee shops. “Oh, I’ll just stop in and grab a cup” I think. And I immediately say, no I am not doing that. Then my brain sees the next coffee spot, and the same cycle goes back. I also have a bit of regret: here are all of these great, small local businesses that I am passing by and not supporting. Maybe I’ll need to expand my tastes for herbal teas beyond mint!
I’ve also felt an interesting change in mood. I feel like I am a lot less “reactive”. Someone cutting me off was annoying, but no as annoying as usual. That said, I’m also not getting my “Monday” newsletter out until Thursday…
R.H. and M.P. got a Cushman! I helped a little with some of the refurbishing and then got to take it for a ride! I felt like I was living Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride! 40 MPH never felt so fast or sounded so rattly!
A book cover I saw in the window of Dog Eared Books. I know the feeling on both of those faces.
Made me laugh!
