I drank coffee today.

Peter Gehmeling having "breakfast".


Beware the stack of milk and cream containers


My first coffee (in a long time)

If I recall correctly I've only had coffee three times. Not that I hate coffee or despise caffeine, I'm just not a coffee drinker. Coffee crisp (chocolate bar), chocolate covered coffee beans, coffee flavoured ice cream, they're all good. Coffee in a liquid form, no. Once while in kid form my parents gave me a cup to try out. It didn't take. Had they added sugar to it maybe, but drinking it black was way too bitter for those then youthful taste buds.

A second attempt was made while taking applied computer science. A bunch of us were studying in the E130 computer lab. We had a small radio playing 80s music, a bunch of assorted snacks, and someone had gone out and gotten a bunch of cups of coffee. There were extra so I thought I'd have one. I don't remember the taste but I do remember it keeping me awake until 11am the next day. With my night owl schedule back then that doesn't really say much. My brain was wired to be awake but I wasn't thinking clearly. I felt like a zombie.

Last night or rather Thursday night I got a call to work a show doing playback. It was a bunch of pickup shots involving a family living room TV set and a clip of Woody Woodpecker. The set wrapped at 2am. By the time I had finished packing my gear, driving it back to the company I was working for on the other side of town, unloading the contents into the lock up room, parking the van, and taking the blue night transit (the 24 hour bus) back home, I had arrived home at 5am.

Normally I would crash or stay up a few more hours watching TV to decompress. But the next day, Friday, I was scheduled to work for the same company on a different show. I had to be back across town at 10:30. Having to leave at 9:00am to make it there on time would give me four hours to sleep.

On top of this I had gotten an email that night informing me that my new business cards were ready for pick up. I could pick up the cards on the way to work if I left earlier at 8:30 am. Three and a half hours didn't seem like much sleep. I stared at the ceiling for about an hour before making the decision to not go to sleep at all and have breakfast across the street.

Around 2:00 pm I was having lunch when the wave of drowsiness hit me. We stopped off at Starbucks, Peter's favorite coffee place, and I picked up a small coffee. This little cup kept me going until 8:00pm and on the way back home to the subway station fell asleep in the van.

The train ride home was a blur and when I got home managed to fire off some emails before saying "hello" to my pillow.