For love of the bean

My first challenge of 2008 has presented itself. I'm going to decaffeinate.

My moment of clarity occurred in New Orleans. I was staying at the Very Nice Hotel where the conference was being held. The place was rife with economists, vendors, and Sugar Bowl fans*, and yet there was only one stand in the place serving coffee-to-go.

The third morning that I found myself standing in line for 15 minutes, bleary-eyed and anxious, simply to get a tall drip with room, I realized that this pathetic exercise was completely preventable. Just like that, the lightbulb turned on and I was ready to accept the fact that The Time Had Come.

So over the past week I've been weaning myself from full-caf to half-caf to quarter-caf and I hope to make the final switch to decaf next weekend. We can get really good decaf here in Coffee Country, thankfully.

Plus I'm guessing this can have only a positive effect on my penchant for half-and-half. As we all know, coffee is just an excuse to drink half-and-half because it's rude to drink half-and-half straight.

*It made for some interesting people-watching, fer sure!