So, Backstory,

I grew up with caffeinated drinks being absolutely forbidden. I still remember my mom dumping a 3 liter shasta moon mist (or something like that) down the drain, because we discovered it had caffeine halfway in.

On my mission I made it *almost* all the way through without drinking caffeine. About 6 months before going home, a sweet old lady gave us some Kroger cola and I decided the Lord would rather I drink it than offend, so I did. It was nasty. I hated it. How could people drink this swill??!!!

That was my only drink of caffeine until years later in Med school. I was dead tired from working/studying and (because my team was super busy) we were always some of the last to get to the lunchtime rounds where they provided drinks and lunch. Since the only things left were Diet coke and Diet Dr. Pepper, that was often what I drank. After about 2 weeks of drinking those suckers daily, I was hooked.

For those who feel caffeine isn't addictive, I will state unequivocally that it is. My wife wasn't super happy about my new habit, so I weaned myself off because she means more to me. She didn't ask me to, so don't go off on that, I could just tell it wasn't her ideal.

But let me tell you, when I see a commercial or we walk by it in Costco, my body craves it. Two weeks ago, a lady we were helping post-hurricane gave several of us volunteers diet Dr. Pepper. I didn't want to offend, so I had mine





then, I paid it forward by offering to surreptitiously drink it for the members who don't drink caffeine.