Why did I start drinking coffee?

When I was younger I could never go into the fish section of the grocery store. In fact, I really couldn't go near it. The smell of raw seafood and the images of whole fish sitting on display in crushed ice made me instantly nauseous. I would have to hang in the cereal isle while my mom picked up whatever we were having. I never ate fish.

Similarly, in the Norrie house, every Friday was pizza night. As a family we were either socially allergic or monetarily indisposed to eating anywhere but home. Restaurants were not part of the equation. Thus Fridays were a big deal. Usually it would just mean ordering a pie from Dimolas, but on occasion mom and dad would want to get Chinese. On these occasions the 'rents would come up big and make a special trip to the pizza parlor because they knew their eldest just couldn’t force down General Tso's or rice and noodles. Couldn’t stomach and didn't want to try.

Well it would seem Dylan was right that the time's they are a changin'. Years later I am morphing, becoming a new man so to speak. Every once in awhile the little lady will want some Chinese and I'll be damned if the Sesame Chicken doesn’t sound good. Some nights at my friend Pat's house I find myself asking for seconds on the salmon.

There was no set point, distinguishable moment or conscious decision to start enjoying these things. I honestly had never thought about it too terribly hard until a couple of weeks ago when I was standing in Dunkin Donuts. All of a sudden I woke up and realized I had been here everyday for the last two weeks. I found myself about to, like a seasoned pro, order my medium French Vanilla, cream, sweet and low. At that point I thought, "What the hell am I doing? I hate coffee!" This was the same drink I used to refer to as burnt water. I couldn't even sip out of my parents' mugs without being left with a sickening aftertaste for an hour. In fact, at one point, some friends and I had argued quite seriously about the negative effects of coffee compared to beer. (I argued in favor of the hops and barley of course) Yet here I was ordering that very same "deadly poison" as it had been referred and loving every minute of it.

I started to wonder what else I could change about myself. Maybe I could get myself to go skydiving or even start to like flying. Was it possible that I would actually one day like the movie Grease? Maybe there would be a time when Phoebe from Friends would seem humorous to me. I could even get comfortable walking down the street with Sabrina and having both our arms around each other at the same time. For a brief moment nothing was safe.

But then I remembered that coffee was addictive, a diuretic and made the drinker’s breath stink. Not all change is good. Some things should stay consistent and there is pride in stability. I’m fine as is. It was an epiphany or sorts and I had it all while staring at Saresh and her Dunkin Donuts uniform. So when she asked me if I wanted my usual replied, “No, its time for a change,” and started putting my money away. But then I saw the picture on the menu of the hot steam emerging from a cup of java and said, “Scratch that, I’ll take an extra large mocha, heavy cream, four sugars.” Skydiving here I come.