Making Peace with Coffee

Those reports you read about coffee being good for you? Do you believe them?

I'm almost as skilled as a liberal economist at living in a state of denial, but I have to be honest about this thing. I know I'd probably be better off  -- health-wise -- without coffee. I won't bore you or depress myself with the list of reasons. Sigh... It is what it is.  And I'm not shy about admitting that I'm sitting here with a cup at my elbow as I type. Mental health counts for something, right?

I have a new doctor that's helping me kick Lyme's, and I think she understands this. I liked her from the first moment I laid eyes on her; she's a wonderfully cute and upbeat little thing. And so smart! (As an aside, how crazy is it, y'all who are my age, when your doctor is the age of your children? It's not that you take them any less seriously, but you have to refrain from calling them "dearie"...) Anyway, Dr. J and I were going over my diet the other day (I'm on a fairly strict version of the Paleo diet right now), and I didn't really want to know, but in the spirit of at least appearing to be serious about a cure, I asked her: "So... What about coffee? Will I have to give it up?"

Her eyes followed the dotted line my eyes were making to the half-consumed cup of joe next to her laptop. She sighed, fixed me with a telling look of  impending doom, and said, (insert dramatically low cello notes here) "Not. Yet."

I grimaced. She laughed. It wasn't funny.

Lent is coming.