Warming up to Coffee

I used to think that coffee was bad for you, an unfortunate necessity on days of less than five hours of sleep, but not something to get addicted to. I didn't want to be controlled by coffee. Now I'm beginning to think that, instead of giving control to an outside source, coffee gives control to the drinker. Coffee gives you the ability to choose when you want to be most awake and most alert, and keeps you from having to rely on the chance that you will wake up feeling refreshed (this seems random and not dependent on amount of sleep for me). It is much easier to get out of bed when you know that no matter how awful you feel, you can DO something about it. It gives me agency and I love it.

Of course, I think it upsets my stomach, it forms a dependency, and I read an article in National Geographic once that led me to believe that regular caffeine consumption actually lessens your non-caffeinated mental activity (i.e., you feel less awake and alert on no caffeine as a coffee drinker than you would be if you were on no caffeine as a non-coffee-drinking person). Still, on some days it really helps to know that I have a [not so] secret weapon.

Why I Like the BBC News Website

I'm horrible at keeping on top of the news -- in the past, I was usually the last one to know when there was a new Prime Minister and the one least likely to remember who the last one was, to cite two embarrassing examples. However, I'm slowly becoming more informed and involved. I like the BBC news website because every article has links to connected issues, which means that if I haven't been keeping up on my news and I read an article, I can click on the other links and get the context in which any event is happening. It's great. I also really like the "Day in Pictures" section where interesting pictures are displayed from around the world.

If anyone's interested, there's a fascinating news clip in the Video and Audio News section today called "Fabled Arctic Passage open as ice recedes". It's only a couple of minutes long and pretty amazing. Just click on my BBC news link to the right and check it out.

New Job

My new boss and his store are both delightfully eccentric. To give an example, in order to get to the narrow tower of employee locker-cubbyholes in the basement, a person must first remove a barricade consisting of a foam pool noodle, plastic broom handle, and jingly bell. Pushing it out of a ring affixed to a pole, it can be swung off to the side. Next there is a pile of about twenty rubber floor mats that rest on the landing of the stairs. Upon climbing those, the second barricade, some kind of heavy metal pole with another bell attached, can be unclipped from the cable tie that secures it and it sort of drops to the floor. Then, after vaulting over the third barricade, a piece of white plywood, one is free to continue down the stairs to the lockers, but if you forgot to get a lock for your locker (the locks have to be returned to the pharmacy counter at the end of your shift) you need to head back up and then down again.

And that's just one example. The debit machine also happens to be on the opposite side of the store from the cash register and there's another pile of 20 rubber mats to climb up in order to use it. In another effort to prevent theft, there are randomly selected mirrors and lightbulbs of various sizes, wattages and colours placed at irregular intervals in the aisles. The manager/owner/pharmacist (let's call him D), maintains that if an item does not have an expiration date printed on it, it does not expire, so there are shelves of hair dye and suntan lotion that appear to predate my existence. The most interesting thing about all of this is that the apparent chaos makes a wacky kind of sense. It's not disorganized by any means -- merely individualized. That means I need to try to learn D's quirks as quickly as possible.

EDIT: Upon further reflection, I think I'm going to quit.

The Night Before

I'm sitting at my boyfriend's computer, listening to the bubbles do their thing in the pail a couple of feet behind me. I finally got around to mopping the floors, and I conveniently mopped myself into this island of dry area, which just happens to contain a desk, a laptop, and a chair. Because I must wait for the floor to dry, I have about 15 minutes of legitimate computer time before I can start nagging myself to make my lunch, pack my backpack, and do all those other little things to prepare for my first day of classes tomorrow.

I'm really nervous/excited, like I am at the beginning of every year, though the feeling is probably more intense because I'm starting at a new university in a new city, and I'm not sure what the expectations are going to be. I think anyone who really knows me would say I have a bit of a stress problem, and I'm making an effort to relax more this year, but I think at this point tension is inevitable. It will be a relief to have the first day over with, and at least have a syllabus or two to look at and compare to the syllabuses of my past.

It's quiet right now, quieter than I expect a city setting to be. Earlier the people next door were playing some loud but mellow music, and various shouts, bangs, and other noises sounded at regular intervals. But now it's just me and the bubbles, and the occasional rush of a vehicle passing in the street below. It makes tonight's mood all the more solemn and expectant.