STEP 2 might not be at all interesting to many of you.  In fact, to a number of you, it might be down-right disgusting and the thought of it makes you cringe, in fact, you’ve never given it any thought at all…you don’t like the idea, the smell, the effort, the color, and have never, not even once, considered it worthy of thought…but to me it is glorious…hot, dark, comforting, rich, complex, aromatic, smooth, energizing, delicious, bright, earthy, strong, lively magnificence…I have bought green beans and experimented with home roasting, I have bought ridiculously over priced exotic beans that I only used with my burr grinder and a French Press, I have bought cheap pre-ground grocery store coffee, and I have bought ten ounces of coffee beans scooped into a tidy brown paper bag that cost me more than a pair of Calvin Klein jeans.  I’ve ordered coffee from Ethiopia and Kenya, Costa Rica and Chili.  I’ve bought fair trade and organic, and I’ve perhaps purchased from companies who treat the farmers horribly or don’t care to sustain the villagers who work for them…but…in my life, I’ve loved them all.

I first tried coffee when I was in college.  I suppose like many addictions, that’s when they start. I worked at a fabulous gallery and my boss loved to have afternoon coffee, every day, and one day when I was 18, after I’d been working for her for many months, she asked me why I didn’t drink it…this was back before there were coffee shops of any sort on our little island, and back before Starbucks was even known here on the east coast, when coffee wasn’t “in.”  She lived with her husband in an apartment over the shop, and every afternoon he would bring her a mug of coffee and it smelled so good…my grandparents, both sets, drank coffee, so I had been around coffee, but never knew coffee…and truth be told, I don’t recall particularly liking my first cup of coffee, but I did like the afternoon break, the chatting with my boss, the connection that it seemed to induce and shortly thereafter I met a woman at school, a single mother much like myself, who asked me if I wanted to join her for coffee after our class, and THAT sealed the deal…the tables outside of the cafeteria were full of happy looking college students, laughing and talking and writing and smiling, and drinking coffee…the association was made very quickly for me…coffee = happiness.

Ages ago, when my daughter was in pre-school, I dated a guy who liked coffee as much as I did, as did his mom, and his mother and I would often, if not always, drink it after dinner when I ate with their family.  All through college it was not unusual for me to drink it in the morning, the afternoon, and at night.   It never has made me jittery or edgy, and I feel comfortable reporting that it does not affect my sleep in any way.  I have made lifelong friends over coffee and I have had first dates, and last dates, over coffee.  I am well aware that it is not an enjoyable beverage for many people.  In fact, neither of my parents drink it AND they never did, neither my sister nor my daughter drink it,  and neither have my last two boyfriends.  When my granddaughters were little, one of the first things that they associated with me was that I loved coffee, in fact my daughter once was scolded for using “Nana’s mug” which was not, at all…but a mug in my daughter’s house that had never been used until my visit!  In fact, when the little ones are here and they say grace at the dinner table, the youngest one concludes with, “and peace to all, and I love trees, and Nana’s breath smells like coffee”  then they crack up laughing, every single time they eat dinner at my house, and why I wonder is the laughter is at my expense, and do I really have perpetual coffee breath?  and I wonder what it has to do with gratitude for dinner and thanks for food,  this is still a mystery to me, but they’ve done it for years, and it doesn’t seem like they are going to stop any time soon!

I could probably count on my fingers and toes the total number of days I have gone without coffee since that first time.  I do get a headache most days if I don’t have afternoon coffee…and I suppose much like being dope sick, and like a junkie who just needs an eye dropper full to get through a day, I can feel 100 times better with just 10 ounces!  It’s like a miracle.  It is my “drug of choice.”  So, you might be wondering how THIS works into my idea of a 21 step detox/reboot…well, like I wrote, take what you need…and maybe some of you don’t know that you need coffee.  “He likes it, hey Mikey!”  …you never know until you try, and for all you know, it is the one thing you have not tried that will reignite you, it might just be the best idea you have all year…you just never know…