Cooper’s Open Apology Letter To Coffee

Dear Coffee,

As hard as it is to believe, we’ve known each other for many years.  Decades, actually.  Time flies, right?

We first met when I was five years old.  My dad would get me up early on Saturday mornings so that I could go to the farm with him.  After I threw on clothes and ran downstairs, I’d join him for a cup of Folgers Instant Coffee (it would be another decade before I had real, brewed, coffee).  Mine, of course, would have A LOT more sugar than his did.  After we were caffeinated, we’d get in his old pickup truck and go to the farm.

Then, when I was a teen, I spent countless hours at Traveler’s Truck Stop guzzling from the bottomless cup of $1.00 diner coffee.

Later, thanks to my friend Rusty, I got a taste of the good stuff.  His family was well off enough to buy whole beans and grind their own coffee.  The smell was amazing.  The taste even better.  Especially, when you compare it to the instant coffee my dad used to drink.

Over the years, no matter how many changes have occurred in my life, you’ve been there for me.  Different relationships, different jobs, different towns and states.  No matter where I was living or what I was doing, you were there for me.  There to help me wake up.  There to help me focus.  There as an excuse to hang out at my favorite coffee shops and socialize with people.

But, I feel that it is time for our relationship to change.  I guess what I am trying to say is that I think we should see other people.

The big changes in my lifestyle brought on by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic have made me realize just how much coffee I have been drinking.  Between the coffee I drank at the station and the restaurant coffees I would buy as a way to “treat myself”, I was easily drinking the equivalent of five or six cups a day.

A few weeks ago, I attempted to quit drinking coffee.  This will not come as a big surprise to most people, it did not go as well as I thought it would.  I had no issues dealing with the headaches.  Instead, I just felt “scattered”.  I could not focus on what I needed to accomplish.  Tasks that would normally take a few minutes ended up taking a half hour.

Despite that, I am still dedicated to making a change in my life.

So, I have made a plan to limit the amount of coffee I will drink on a daily basis.  My new limit is two cups a day.  In order to accomplish this, I try to avoid having my first cup before midday.  Instead, I start my morning with water and Mio.  So far, so good.

Anyway, thanks for all those years.

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