My late-night study sessions have gotten MUCH less fun since security started locking the break room in the basement of the Chapel (my go-to place after the library closes, since it's halfway to my room). No coffee! (On the other hand, this enables me to avoid situations like this, which cannot be anything but good.)

Also, an observation: the loud international students who used to frequent the computer lab down here are gone. (Normally, I like the international students, but these could get annoying.) I suspect this is not unrelated to the lack of free caffeine.

In a spirit directly contradictory to my last post, I must share with you my latest discovery. Because, I'll admit, occasionally I need a caffeine boost greater than what I can get from green tea. (Tonight is one of those nights, although I learned a few weeks ago that I need to be VERY CAREFUL about my coffee consumption. Ugh. I was recovering for days.)

Anyway, I needed caffeine, and I had access to free coffee, free cocoa, and free York Peppermint Patties. The result is PURELY DELICIOUS.

Cobbled-together Peppermint Mocha

Take a few peppermint patties and break them up into the bottom of an empty coffee cup. (I used three of the small kind. One big one would be more than enough.) Pour in coffee, but leave a little space at the top. Give the patties a while to melt--you can encourage them by stirring gently and smooshing them with your spoon.

When the patties are pretty much completely dissolved, add half a packet or so (maybe a couple tablespoons?) of hot cocoa mix. (Normally, I'd advocate adding the mix BEFORE the coffee to get it to mix in better, but that would lower the temperature of the coffee, and the patties need all the heat they can get to melt.)

Stir it up and add creamer. (All I had access to was the non-dairy stuff, but half-and-half would be much better.)

As a caffeine delivery system, this is a billion times better tasting than a can of Coke. Also, since my school is awesome, it was a billion times cheaper, since I got all the ingredients for free. They probably would have charged me nearly five dollars at Starbucks for the same drink.

Like a lot of students, I have a long tradition of treating my body very poorly during finals. There's the sleep deprivation (which is basically unavoidable), but we also pour in caffeinated sodas and high-sugar, high-fat snacks packed with preservatives and sodium and who knows what other crap.

Around this time last year, I discovered that I actually really like green tea. Since I don't even like soda, and only drank it for the caffeine, replacing Coke and Dr. Pepper (not diet, either, because that stuff's nasty) with unsweetened green tea (less caffeine, but no calories and no crap*) was a huge step towards being a little healthier during finals.

But as far as food goes, my school is either really nice, or really evil. There is no shortage of free snacks during finals. But by and large they're still of the delicious-but-crappy variety. (Although, I have noticed an increase in things like fruit cups and granola bars in recent years.) And my problem is, having something to put into my mouth and chew and swallow helps enormously with my ability to concentrate. So I end up eating a lot of crappy food.

I do try snatching fresh fruits from Prothro. Prothro fruit is pretty poor quality, but it's still fruit, which is a big step above Doritos and Reeses.

Well, today Prothro had baby carrots, instead of the nasty, bitter, shriveled-up carrot sticks they usually have, so I swiped a cup full. I've been snacking on them all afternoon. And I have to say . . . I'm disappointed. Yeah, they served the intended purpose of keeping my fingers and mouth busy so my mind could function. But I actually feel HUNGRIER after eating them.**

Also, I have to deal with that problem you get when you chewed the carrot too long without swallowing, and now you have a big mouthful of carrot pulp, and you can't quite bring yourself to swallow, because it has no flavor, but so you just keep chewing, and it gets steadily more unpleasant until you force yourself to choke it down. (The same thing happens to me with coconut, although I still love Almond Joys.)

I am DYING to get away from college and live in a place where I can feed myself in a healthy way. At home, instead of snacking on junk food, I eat small meals of whatever is in the fridge. It would be much easier to incorporate yummy vegetables into that lifestyle than it is in this one.



* Well, okay, green tea has fluoride in it, so if you're concerned about fluoride, I suppose there's some crap. But you have to drink a LOT of tea to get fluoride poisoning, and in the mean time, it helps protect you teeth instead of rotting them away. Also, antioxidants!

** Although, I wonder if that's just because they didn't make me feel sick to my stomach like greasy or sugary food does.

You know that Strong Bad e-mail where Strong Bad slips Strong Sad caffeine? (My favorite SBemail.) Or that one Garfield comic where Garfield's all like, there'snothinglikeagoodcupofcoffeeinthemorningyessireeagoodcupofcoffeeortworthreeor, and Jon's like, I'm cutting you off?

That's so me right now. I lost track of how much coffee I've downed since the library closed two hours ago . . . more than four cups, I think. (And then there's all that green tea I was drinking before the library closed. YEAH MAN.) I'm so jittery you could probably power a small village off of me at the moment. WHEE! I'm can't stop clicking my pen, and I can barely type. Also, that same security guard came through a little while ago and said, "You again?" I told her I'm doing an Honors Thesis. (WHY am I doing an Honors Thesis????)

WHOO COFFEE!!!

*I'm generally really good at spelling, but I can NEVER remember what order the I and E go in 'caffeine'.