Coffee Nerves

Yesterday, I drank too much caffeine, and I’ve learned my lesson! Let me start from the beginning. You see, it happened this way: I usually mix my coffee, with l/3 decafe and 2/3 caffeinated.But I’ve noticed that lately I don’t snap to attention as quickly as I would like when I awake each morning, and I figured additional caffeine would help me be more alert; you know, keep the syntaxes snapping and the energy soaring. So, yesterday morning, I used all caffeine in my 6 cups of usual morning brew, hoping that would work. Boy! Did it work! A very dear friend called and I hardly gave her time to say a word. I’m afraid her ear got mighty tired before she finally managed to say she had to go. I went to exercise class and zipped through all those moves like nobody’s business. Sitting down with writing materials in front of me, I thought of new additions I could make to the Etta Bend devotional and even decided maybe I’d write a whole new Etta book! I solved one or two national problems and a couple of world situations. Mystery plots galore crowded my mind, but that was just the trouble. Those ideas jostled and pushed each other for room, each one thinking it was the answer to my desire to write a best seller and the result was none of those possibilities made it onto paper. I felt great but not entirely sensible.

After lunch, I had a long nap, and felt more normal. However, I am still all at sea on a title for my second Nettie McNeil book. Since the first one is called Moonlight Can Be Murder, I think the next should have either moonlight or murder in the title, don’t you? Something that ties in with the first but doesn’t sound gruesome. What do you think? Please send any and all ideas for a title for the second book. Thank you!

A person never gets too old to learn. Throughout my life, I’ve found that baking helps ease worries, the blues, and even coffee nerves. My sister-in-law Linda gave me some zucchini from her bountiful garden. I waxed creative and made chocolate zucchini muffins, pineapple and coconut zucchini muffins and dried cranberry and pecan zucchini muffins. Most of them are in the freezer. I may try them out on the cozy critters who are due to come to the critique Wednesday.

Another antidote to coffee nerves is my dog. He never stresses out. Well, yes, he does when he hears thunder or fireworks, but other than that, he’s pretty calm. That’s not counting the times he feels such euphoria that he tears through the house jumping on sofas, chairs, and people, but then I think that’s just one of his characteristics, not a result of drinking caffeine. He has a good outlook on life. He is alert to danger but he thoroughly enjoys the simple things. As long as he has plenty to eat and water to drink, a shelter from storms, and is with the people he loves, he is happy. Now, who could ask for more than that?