Sassy Buster: Teacups

Several months ago I was suffering from the worst case of insomnia I’ve ever experienced. Considering I was a very good sleeper before that, that’s not saying much, but I was exhausted. Stressed about my home life, with the mister off at school several nights a week and his own workload mounting, my responsibilities at home were growing, worried about finances, pushed to the breaking point at work, I couldn’t sleep. I’d rest my head on my pillow and close my eyes, but my mind would just whir uncontrollably.

Several weeks of crappy sleep made me moody, to put it mildly. To be more accurate, I vacillated between bouts of weeping and homicidal rage. It was fun for everyone around me.

So, I went and saw someone about the not sleeping. A short course of a sleep aid later I still wasn’t sleeping straight through the night, but I was at least getting 5 or 6 solid hours of sleep, a vast improvement.

Oddly enough, just a couple of days after getting laid off, I woke from the most refreshing 13 hours of sleep I’d ever gotten and I’ve slept well nearly every night since, despite my difficulty in finding a new job. Guess I know where most of my stress was coming from….

Anyway (I do have a talent for digression), in my meeting with the doctor before I got the prescription sleep aid that conked me out, we discussed my caffeine intake, which was impressive.

I’d start my morning with coffee at home. Then, coffee at work (either from Starbucks or the office machine). By the time lunch rolled around, I’d had about 6 cups of coffee. Then, at lunch, I’d have a Diet Coke.

I’d have another cup of coffee or a Diet Coke around 2:00, and, if the mister and I went out for dinner (which we did a lot because who had time to cook?) I’d have another Diet Coke or two.

When the doctor heard me reciting this list of caffeine, she goggled, a little bit surprised that I managed to sleep at all.

So, I began weaning myself away from the juice.

First, only one cup of coffee before leaving my house, instead of 2. Then, only two cups of coffee at the office before noon. A Diet Coke with lunch. No caffeine after 2:00 in the afternoon. Then, we bumped the after 2:00 cutoff to noon. Then, I started switching my two cups of office coffee for hot tea, which has significantly less caffeine.
I actually really like hot tea. I drank it pretty regularly at home on weekends or when I had the time to make a nice pot of it and sit and enjoy it, but found fussing with tea bags kind of annoying at work, since I had to stand around in the kitchen for 5 minutes and wait for the tea to steep, while it only took a few seconds to pour coffee into a mug and slink back into my office.

Then I realized that, oh, yeah, I hate my job, so 5 minutes in the kitchen is five minutes closer to quitting time, so making tea was kind of fun.

Then I got laid off and basically stopped drinking coffee altogether, along with Diet Coke. I’ll have a cup of coffee if the mister makes a pot, or I’ll have a Diet Coke if I’m out for lunch or dinner, but mostly I drink water, milk, and tea.

A couple of weekends ago, KVE and I went antiquing in Hopkins. I went with the hopes of finding some vintage embroidered linens and a decent dining room table (I hate mine, but that’s a story for another day). I scored a very pretty embroidered tablecloth. Prompted by a very pretty blue-flowered teacup and saucer, I also decided on the spot to begin collecting teacups.