#5: No Coffee Until March 27

Well I did it! I went an entire month without a drop of coffee. For all of you addicts out there, know that it IS possible to survive without the dark drink of death.

I have to say, though, that when I did finally have a coffee (Sunday, March 30), it was one of the most delicious coffees I've ever had: A Black Forest Mocha from a little local place near the ocean in Seaside, Ore. I'll definitely go there again next time I'm in Seaside.

I also have to admit I'm rather proud of myself. My goal was to avoid coffee until March 27, and I actually went 3 days longer. In addition, I had maybe 6 sips out of the entire cup. I did much better than I thought I was going to.

The point of this goal was to determine if there was any connection between my increasing lack of good sleep and my increasing intake of coffee. Though my research was not quite purely scientific, I have decided that yes, coffee does affect my sleep, even decaf, and even when I drink it in the morning.

This finding will not keep me from drinking coffee in the future, but I plan to drink much less than I was a month ago. As much as I like the stuff, I do know that anything in excess is bad. And it's much easier to get an excess of coffee than it is to get an excess of, say, water.

Old #5: Check.

New #5: Do some research on freelance copy editing. I really want to get into that, so I might as well start it now, before I have kids and run out of time to do the research.

A Slight Modification

Well, I pulled a Petra and slightly modified one of my "Next Five." Jason and I have been doing a lot of talking about our kitchen (especially after we tried to fix the drawers and they practically fell apart), and we have decided that we may just go ahead and have new cupboards and counters installed altogether. None of this trying to fix what the last person did wrong. No way!

So we're leaning more toward brand new instead of simply painting the cupboards, and I have modified the #1 in my Top Five. I'll keep you posted on what happens on this front. Hopefully there will be some news soon...

#5: Get in Touch With the WWV Chamber

Finally, Mr. Warkentin of the Walla Walla Valley Chamber of Commerce replied to my inquiries regarding the Event Planner position at the Chamber. Apparently although the person previously in the position had quit only a week or two before, they had already filled the position. They're fast.

So there's no application for a fun new job for me...but my email of interest is in their files. You never know when something like that could come back to help ya!

Now for a new #5. Ah, yes: No coffee (or other forms of caffeine) until our Spring Break vacation (March 27-30). This is in an attempt to conduct an experiment with my body. (Sounds gross, but bear with me.)

Over the last month or so, I have been suffering from whatever it is doctors call it when you get to sleep but then wake up several times and wake up in the morning feeling just as tired as when you went to bed the night before. It's not really insomnia, because I do sleep, it's just constantly interrupted. And I can't explain it.

I finally made a connection between when I started going to the new local coffee shop more frequently (3 times a week on average) and when I started having sleep issues. So even though I can get decaf coffee (which still has caffeine in it anyway), I'm shooting for no coffee at all, just to be safe.

I don't know if coffee is the culprit or not, but I'm conducting a nearly month-long experiment to find out. I'll let you know how it goes.

#5: Get in touch with the WWV Chamber of Commerce about the Event Planner position there. CHECK!

New #5: No coffee until March 27