(Sunday Paper, Volume III, Issue 9)

Here's a note about my North Carolina experience that I thought merited some explanation:

I did a very good job of keeping up with my coffee drinking while I was away.

In the past this has been something I haven't always done.

But last week, when I wrote about how well I took care of myself and my routines, I didn't specifically mention coffee...but it was a big part of that.

And it made me realize just how reliant I am on it.

Here's a fun fact: Kevin doesn't drink coffee.

Danielle does, so there was a Kuerig in the house when I was in South Carolina that I could make a morning coffee with. (But Kuerigs, I've found in the past, don't always give me a morning boost...so I supplemented it with a store-bought coffee a couple of times and made sure I had something stronger in the afternoon if I didn't in the morning.) [Also, I know that previous non-parenthetical sentence would have been more grammatically correct if I had written ..."which which I could make a morning coffee." But that's not in the Sunday Paper style guide. Sorry.]

But I bring this up because Kevin - thoughtfully - asked often if I needed to stop for coffee. And I took him up on it. But that experience made me reflect on what a maniac I must have sounded like in regards to my coffee.

And I guess I kind of am. This is, after all, not the first time I've written about it.

I don't know how I became this person. I didn't even have the slightest desire to drink coffee for the first 20 years of my life. (It occurs to me that, since I turn 40 this summer, I'll be drinking coffee for as long in my lifetime as I didn't drink it.) But I did drink a lot of soda, so it's not like I was living a caffeine-free life. (I've been soda free for quite some time now.) At some point in my overnight working life - maybe not the first round of overnights at Channel 7 but the second round of overnights, at Fox, I think I became reliant on a morning coffee. (Or a middle-of-the-night coffee. Depending on your perspective, I guess.)

During my teaching career I'd occasionally enjoy an afternoon coffee, and an even more occasional afternoon tea, but since I've worked at home writing I've become a mug and a half (have I talked about that Pirates mug pictured above? - it's one of the best stadium souvenirs I ever bought) in the morning and the rest of the pot - in a slightly smaller mug - in the afternoon. (Oops. Yes, I have talked about the Pirates mug. I guess I do write about coffee quite a bit. Yeesh. I even took the same picture.)

I say all of this to admit I have a coffee reliance...but also to feel out how ordinary or not this all is. I'm not ready to call it a coffee problem. Is it? What's your story? I'd love to hear about your coffee habit. Put it in the comments below or on the Facebook page.

That will help me know who will make up the support group if I ever decide to stop drinking coffee.

Writing

*Back to the normal grind this week after the festival fun last week. It was fine. I have lots of work to do, which is good. And since the calendar turned to March I needed to invoice for February. It was a slower-than-usual month but it's still ahead of where I was a year ago and that means we've reached a new plateau for work and that's a good thing. (And I certainly wouldn't be as productive without my coffee!)

Comedy

*Slow week getting back to comedy. I was a little moody coming down from the festival, I realized about mid-week, and I talked myself out of going out Monday night. (I really should have done something.) Wednesday I went to two shows which I'll probably write about in the future and the Friday storm made me cancel plans to go into Boston for shows that night. This week should be better - info in 'Comedy Shows' above about tonight's show in Somerville and I'll probably hit an open mic on Monday before Kathy goes away for a few days mid-week.

What I've Been Enjoying

*This might be jumping the gun in terms of 'enjoyment', but I'm going to write about it here in the hopes that it turns into something good that I enjoy. A couple of years ago I became addicted a bit to the Expresso bikes at the gym, which are exercise bikes that have little video screens that show paths and different challenges as you pedal, and they keep track of record times for everyone in the gym who uses the bikes and signs in. It was a good motivation to keep me exercising, and I thought, "If they ever had this for a treadmill I might become a really great runner!"

Well, the treadmills were replaced while I was away in North Carolina last week and they now have video screens. I only just signed in for the first time on Tuesday (and realize as I'm writing this I may have already forgotten my log-in) and did my first run (I've also only just gotten back to running in the past week and a half after a nagging toe injury...not sure I want to write about that right now). It seems to at least keep a history of my runs, which is something I enjoy, but I'm hoping there's more to it and I'm looking forward to exploring it further and using it to help me get back into some semblance of running shape.

Notes

*Hey John, the last couple of weeks of Sunday Papers have been pretty popular writing about the comedy festival and performing and everything. Good call this week writing about COFFEE. That ought to kill the momentum but good.

*I should have mentioned this in 'Comedy' above but I also spent Friday working on booking. I've lined up some more shows for April...and I also booked a doctor's appointment for early April. Productive day.

*Last week I also mentioned in the Notes that we had a server on Saturday night in Greensboro who recognized Kevin as a South Carolina professor, but not me as a comedy festival performer. I should clarify and add that Kevin went out of his way when he explained to her why he was in Greensboro that he was there to watch me, his comedian friend, perform in the comedy festival. And, I can't make this clearer: SHE JUST DID NOT CARE.

*Saturday night Kevin and Justin and Dave and I had our annual draft for our fantasy baseball league of 4. For the second straight year it happened on-line in a Google Video chat. Last year it was on a Saturday morning so we were drinking - you guessed it! - coffee while we drafted. (Except for Kevin.) This time it was late on a Saturday night so I had some beer and junk food and it was a little more like we were drafting in person...but I'm mainly writing because a) it is a highlight of my year, but more importantly b) so you know that if you saw me buying beer and wine (for Kathy to occupy herself while I was drafting) on Tuesday morning before 10 am at the local supermarket (which I realize in retrospect did not look great), I had a good reason.

*Speaking of sports, I haven't paid a bit of attention yet to college basketball. (Well, that's not entirely true, but as I see results coming in from the conference tournaments I'm realizing I have no clue about which college basketball teams are any good.) I've heard this tournament is going to be wide open, so that should be a fun time. Can't believe we're already a week from Selection Sunday.

*And while we're on the topic of the NCAA Tournament, I was thinking about going to the second round games in Boston on Friday, March 23rd. But tickets are kind of bonkers. So, if you have Friday tickets and are looking for someone to go with you, I'm probably willing to spend up to $150 for the experience...but that's about it. Let me know.