Caffeine + 10pm = Trouble

You know, there used to be a time when I was immune to the effects of caffeine. I would chug coffee, tea, Coke, Pepsi, Mt. Dew, and Jolt moments before I went to bed and I'd be perfectly fine. I'd zonk right out in a matter of minutes.

Then came the doldrum years, in which I'm currently residing. I'll drink an occasional Diet Coke or maybe a single cup of coffee to get me going in the morning, but most of my liquid intake is reserved to things like Fresca, Sprite, Diet Rite Cola (zero caffeine), green tea (low caffeine), and water. These days, if I have a cup of coffee, I practically shake myself out of my skin. I act like Woody Woodpecker on amphetamines.

I don't know what I was thinking at 10pm tonight, but I made myself a large cup of iced coffee. I ground it myself from freshly roasted beans that I had purchased earlier this afternoon. Using filtered water, I brewed it with care. I then cooled it down to room temperature and slid it in the refrigerator for a "brief" chilling session... and forgot about it. This all happened around 8pm.

Sometime later, after watching some television, I ventured back to the kitchen, retreived my tasty elixir, and dumped it into a plastic cup I kept from my visit to Holman Stadium (LA Dodgers spring training camp) this past March. Without looking at the clock or contemplating that I was holding over 20 ounces of strong coffee in my hands, I slugged it down and then had the presence of mind to check the time... 10:14pm. Crap.

So, here I am at 12:45am, still wide awake. My body is saying, "I'm tired! Let me rest!" while my brain is replying, "Shut up, you sissy! Use this time to clean your bathroom!" The result is that I'm now living in some sort of dizzying stupor that I'm finding difficult to fathom. I figure that any moment now, my brain will finally give in and I'll just pass out on my keybfopajsm csa'c.cs.as.... ... ..