Seasonal gluttony part 1

One of the benefits of working on a nursing unit is the overwheming abundance of good stuff to eat and drink that appears around the holiday season from physician groups, patients and families, and varous other folks who hold us in high esteem. This year has been particularly fruitful.

Sitting in the report room right now are many pounds of coffee, boxes of tea (earl gray), two gift baskets of table water crackers and brie, fudge, rum balls, peanut brittle, malt balls, chocolate covered coffee beans, fruitcake, more fudge, homemade cranberry bread, and assorted cookies.

Tomorrow, one of the cardiology groups is catering lunch for the unit.

Pharmacy, in their wisdom, sends up bottles of maalox every year.

Java Jive

I really like a good cup of coffee. Somewhere along the line I turned into a "coffee snob" who only drinks good coffee. Not those fancy "double latte mocha" things, just strong black coffee. I buy it "whole bean" and grind it every morning.

I buy my coffee from Peets. Peets started out in Berkeley in the 1970s, when everybody drank coffee that came in a two-pound can. Peets has grown slowly, unlike Starbucks. They opened their first store around here just a few years ago. Before they arrived here, I would make a pilgrimage to the bay area to get a few pounds every couple of months.

The judge in the first OJ Simpson trial, Lance Ito, drinks Peets coffee. He has it shipped to him. He started drinking it when he was a law student at UC Berkeley.

Peets roasts beans twice a week--only enough for the next few days. Compare this to Starbucks who roast enough beans for months and then vacuum packs them. I can't stand Starbucks. And it's not just because their coffee stinks--they sold water to rescue workers at something like $5 a bottle just after WTC. Shame on them.

A few years ago I was getting much too agitated at work, and I decided to give up coffee for lent. After the headaches and shakes subsided, I felt really good--peaceful and serene. I decided to give up coffee for good. Oh, maybe a cup every now and then.

A year or so later, I was in the midst of applying to the diaconate program. It was a long and involved process, and required multiple interviews. One morning I was being interviewed by a panel, and I told them how my life had changed so much for the better by giving up coffee. I went on and on about it. I probably even told them it brought me closer to God or something.

It wasn't until the interview was over that my wife pointed out that the whole time I had been talking about being coffee-free, I was drinking a cup of coffee.