There is, I believe, a fine line between not enough coffee and too much. And this morning, at the tail end of Commerce Chenango’s “Good Morning, Chenango” breakfast, I discovered just how fine. The hard way.
My day got off to a rather sluggish start. I’ll chalk it up to too much fun over the weekend, coupled with the dampening affect the gray skies always have on my psyche. But whatever the reason, I went through the first few hours of my day in a sort of caffeine-deprived fog.
I’m not really a morning person, so this wasn’t exactly a first. But normally, the typical stress of our morning deadline is enough to snap me out of it. Today, however, my routine was interrupted by the aforementioned breakfast presentation. So, instead of the frantic scramble at the keyboard, I found myself cozied up…with some scrambled eggs. And bacon.
Delicious perfectly cooked bacon. Which, while tummy-pleasing, regrettably does not have the same mind-sharpening effect as the fear of incurring Jeff’s wrath by missing deadline. In fact, it seemed to lull me into a food coma, thus making it difficult even more difficult to concentrate on the albeit very informative presentation.
Thankfully, I used to work for a company which employed the principals of Six Sigma, so I already had a general working knowledge of the concept or else I would have really been in trouble. Not wanting to leave anything to chance, however, I did what any self-respecting journalist would do in the situation – I started mainlining caffeine.
I struggled to give the subject matter my full attention while waiting for the restorative properties of this miracle elixir to kick in. But it never happened. At least not how I’d planned.
Instead of that gentle spark of energy I usually get from my morning coffee, I suddenly had the zing of a thousand espressos coursing through my veins.
There I was. Trapped. At the inside edge of a table, with no escape in sight.
I’d like to think that I kept my hyper-caffeinated state under wraps, but I can’t really be sure. There may have been some foot tapping.
Thankfully, though, it was near the end of the presentation, so I didn’t have too long to wait. But that few minutes felt like a century. I couldn’t wait to get up and start moving around.
My job wasn’t finished, of course. I still had the obligatory group photo – featuring a representative sampling of organizers and speakers – to take. I assure you that as soon as I snapped the requisite shot, I was out the door.
I could have really used a long walk back to the newsroom to work off some of that caffeine. But as luck would have it, the event was at Park Place. Moving at hyper-caffeine speed, I covered that half a block in record time.
It was only after I settled back in the office (or as settled as one can be when hopped up on that much coffee) that I realized I had someplace else to be. Namely, Norwich City Court. For which I was running late. Only a few minutes, to be sure. But that was enough to miss the one case on the calendar I was really interested in.
I knew I could get the information I was looking for, but doing so required sitting through all the other cases on the docket. Which, as entertaining as City Court always is, was something akin to torture to one as antsy as I.
But I got through it. Without any tapping incidents, I might add.
In fact, as I made my way back to the newsroom (at a much slower pace), I realized the caffeine buzzing through my veins had finally started to subside.
I decided to celebrate by indulging in what can only be described as manna from heaven: Hedonist Artisan Chocolates’ milk chocolate bark with sesame. My bestie Liz bought it for me this weekend while we were on a wine tour for her friend Emese’s bachelorette bash. (It was a fabulous trip, which requires a blog all of its own.)
The fact that I love chocolate goes without saying. But this is like nothing I’ve ever tasted before – the flavor of the sesame and an accompanying hint of salt is such an amazing savory compliment to the smooth sweetness of the milk chocolate. It is nothing short of delightful.
Before I knew it, I’d polished off a healthy portion.
And suddenly, an all-too familiar sensation was spreading through me. Only this time, it wasn’t caffeine induced.
Hello, sugar rush…
Follow me on Twitter … @evesunmelissa.
