Reflection: Coffee

" The earliest credible evidence of coffee drinking appears in the middle of the 15th century, in the Sufi shrines of Yemen in southern Arabia"


People talk about drinking milk being weird, "Who's the guy who looked at a cow's udder, think, I'm going to squeeze this and drink whatever comes out." I'll tell you who. A calf.  If animals drink it or eat it, we generally can too.  Now coffee on the other hand... Who on earth would take cherry pits from coffee cherries, hold them over a fire, grind them up, pour water through it, and drink it? That's a much more complicated process. And when they tasted it, did they actually like it?  I remember the first time trying coffee could pass more as torture than a nice morning beverage.  Why add that torture on the torture of early mornings?  I just wonder about the stuff that they tried that DIDN'T make it as a mainstream product.


I began thinking about this after having to go to the washroom at least five times in a day.  I never have that problem except at work, and to be frank I find it a bit embarrassing.  Then I got to thinking about why I got on the bandwagon drinking such a bitter drink anyways.


Ontario Pioneer Camp, July 2005: Energy
Waking up at 6:57 to be in the kitchen at 7 to help prepare breakfast. Even my taste buds were still asleep, and I figured some caffeine might help.  When I realized what I was tasting, then I had enough caffeine to face the day.  Thank you coffee, but you're still gross. Eventually my mom told me I was using it like a drug.  It didn't make me stop using it as a drug, but I admitted I had a problem and began the 12 step process.


Peel Region Waste Facility, February 2011: Heat
So bloody cold.  Every day.  Sorting garbage in a large shed type building with a small space heater pointed at my feet that I couldn't even feel.  Nothing could keep my fingers moving.  They were pretty much swollen constantly because the blood in them had frozen.  Then I borrowed a thermos that I filled with instant coffee. Instant!? Yeah.  People say it's gross.  I'd gotten over the taste of coffee for the most part, enough sugar and cream and most of it was bearable.  Then I had instant coffee.  I didn't notice it was that gross, I was just relieved to be able to hold a warm cup, sip hot liquid, and feel the steam thaw my face every once in a while.
A convenient side effect was that the more coffee I drank, the more often I would get to take a break to go to the bathroom, which was in a heated building.


Fergus, March 2011: Prizes
Undeniably Tim Horton's best promotion. Every morning we would stop and pick up coffee.  I wouldn't have minded a hot chocolate or even a cappuccino, but this went back to the "Energy" thing.  Plus I had a reputation to uphold


Lynden, September 2011: Social
I've heard numerous people complain about church coffee.  I drink it every Sunday and I couldn't tell you the difference.  Granted I'm not a coffee connoisseur, but I find I can never take a big enough sip to tell.  I'm too shy to go up to anyone and start talking, so I found just standing in line for coffee, or even standing with a coffee, changed "awkwardly standing here" to "just drinking my coffee".  Coincidentally, people tend to come by and talk so much that it takes you about 20 minutes to drink half a cup of coffee, and by that time it's pretty cold anyways.


Lynden, October 2011: Habit
This is what got me today.  Coffee is there, coffee is free, and coffee is abundant.  I felt the need for both energy and warmth today, and usually don't have much to say so I was "just drinking my coffee" on every break.  Then I started thinking that I'm not crazy about the taste and I wouldn't call myself an addict, but somehow if it's there, I'm gonna drink it.  I will never need coffee, but this black beverage will likely follow me for the rest of my life, and my bladder will be wondering why the heck I'm still "just drinking my coffee"

Reflection: The Infinite Sadness

Sounds pretty depressing doesn't it?  It isn't really.

My wife and I took a road trip to visit my brother, his wife, and his six month old son. Don't worry, everything is fine with them.  However, while clocking close to 20 hours of driving across the cascades, I felt it.  The Infinite Sadness.

It's terribly difficult to explain.  It's sad, and it's infinite, but not in the sense that it's such a deep sadness.
It's not that you always feel it, but when you do, you know it's always there.
It's comforting.
It's the recognition that there is nothing perfect under the sun
It's that feeling you get when you can see for miles, the horizon is blue and hazy.
It looks perfect, but you know it's not.
It's the knowledge that as you get closer, it's pretty much the same as the last ridge.
It's that dull ache when you just want to stand on a cloud, or in a fog so thick you can't see the ground.
It's knowing that things keep happening, and you can't be everywhere.
It's knowing that that cute kid will probably double in age before you see him again.
It's wishing that all the people you love could just come together to one place.
It's being at home when things are happening everywhere else.
It's being everywhere else and just wishing you were at home.
It's the weird feeling of happiness and peace that just leaves an ache in your heart.
It's knowing that you can't be everything to the one you love most.
It's knowing that that doesn't matter at all.
It's the strange comfort that things can still go up from here.

It seems bad, but I love it.  At least for this life, I feel as if I need it.
It's a sadness that makes you happy.

Update: Kration

In my first year at Redeemer, on a choir tour, we stopped at a mall and being me I decided to check out a music store.  At this music store, I saw for the first time the "Ovation" guitar.  It was like magic.  I don't know much about guitars, but this one has cool holes that aren't in the centre and it's STILL an acoustic! I was pretty much sold, just because it's different, but from what I know about guitars, this one was pretty good.

Four years later, I'm living across the continent, checking craigslist three times a day to find any cheap guitar.  

Then I saw it. 

50 dollars and 45 minutes at the local music store later I have this working ripoff of the brand that I only dreamed of owning.  I'm pretty pumped.

Blogging on Blogging

Just the fact that I'm writing this should say "no offense" to all y'all who might get offended.

I always thought blogs were dumb.

To be fair, I never really read blogs, because they seemed like people wanting to be paid attention to, writing about their own life, like the people who write their facebook statuses "Just got to work!" "Sitting in my chair now!"

However, I am now a stranger in a not-so foreign land.  Everyone that I know from the first 19 years of my life is somewhere other than here.  To be fair, most of the people that I know from the first 19 years of my life are not where I was for the first 19 years of my life, so I began following them on facebook.  I read their statuses "Just got to work!" "Sitting in my chair now!" and felt a vague connection, that I was still involved in their lives. As weak a connection as it may be, it's good to know that these people are alive and well, thinking and feeling and growing like they always have. I also noticed that facebook notes are not worth following.  I'm sure you can tell that as far as social media goes, facebook is all I know, hence it's my only comparison.

Now that I'm on the left coast, I still very much enjoy communicating with everyone from my past life, and from actually following other people's blogs, I believe that now is the time.  I hope I'm still young enough to learn the blogging trick.