Like I said.....

I told you that if I made the statement that something would happen in my travels that it would be a boring, uneventful trip. Seems I was right. Although, to be fair, I did spend most of my trip in a quiet coma. (aka, dead sleep) Why is that? Because I've turned myself into a caffeine weenie!

In a small step toward being healthier I've slowly but surely cut back on my caffeine intake through soda. I made the jump from regular to diet a long time ago and oddly enough can't go back. But cutting back on caffeine was harder. Not so much that I need it, but when I'm eating a meal, drinking water alone just doesn't quite cut it for me. There's not a lot of choice if you don't drink a soda with dinner unless you want alcohol.

So I started to slowly cut back and now I just have a soda early in the morning on the way to work and then maybe for lunch. Either way, I don't drink caffeine past 3pm so it won't keep me up. So many people will immediately tell me 'oh soda doesn't affect me that way, I can drink 3 cups of coffee before bed and I'm fine'... to which I say (all in my head) Gee thanks, I'm so glad that you told me that and I see that our identical physiology is letting me down.

But Friday on the way home I was thinking about all that I had to do before I left on Saturday (clean the house, laundry, pack) and worried that I would talk myself into putting one part of that off until Saturday morning. I thought if I could get a Diet Pepsi Max (a Diet Pepsi with a bolt of extra caffeine), get a little bit of an extra boost and get it all done. Long story short... I ended up with a regular (not diet) Mountain Dew.

OK, how many of you just went 'Oh my God' or gasped as you realized just how much caffeine is in a Dew AND the sugar....

3:45am That's the last time I remember seeing the clock before I finally fell into a slightly fitful sleep. I woke up at the last possible minute that would give me enough time to get ready, call a cab and high tail it to O'Hare.

Needless to say, I did clean my house, did laundry, packed all my things for my trip and was able to wake up, shower and walk out the door. Heaven forbid I be that prepared all the time.

Anyway, I made it to Portland, it's rainy and cool, but I didn't see much other than my hotel. I got here, ordered room service lunch, and promptly fell asleep until 9pm.

.... it's a nice room at least.... I'll get out and about today.

More to come!

A couple of Post Scripts:

A quicky shout out to my coworker Rochelle... The house WAS clean after all... what else was I supposed to do, I was awake!

when I link words I will google them and look for a couple of options for fun or humor (Sorry L.Ron) when I googled Mountain Dew I found the linked page above. A report on Mt. Dew by BBC. Why in the hell are the Brits concerned with what we're drinking? Alcohol, Arsenic, Zombie uber global annihilating Soldier juice I can understand, but soft drinks? Honestly Nigel... pick something more interesting. I mean... Brittney IS having a breakdown!