Coffe [sic] Time

So I was just getting my afternoon coffee pick-me-up type of beverage from our in-office Flavia machine which, if you're not familiar, is a single-packet industrial coffeemaker. You pop your foil packet in, you get something that resembles coffee out, you squeeze it down and go on with your day. While it does not actually have any of the flavor benefits of coffee, it does retain the stimulating benefits, and is thus perfectly functional. In any case, the bin of disposed coffee packets was full and after I finished emptying it, it gave me the number of cups of coffee the machine had dispensed so far: 10814. That's SO much coffee. It's interesting, really, in a non-sky-is-falling-what-are-we-coming-to kinda way, that we as a nation have so thoroughly embraced coffee (bad coffee, too, which is ALSO an interesting, but separate, issue). It's like we've acknowledged that we no longer have the energy or time to do all the things which we expect ourselves to do -- and instead of solving that problem, we artificially keep ourselves awake longer. I mean, we're definitely functional addicts in this respect, but it's very telling that offices are expected to keep coffee on hand at all times. Isn't it just a smidge away from one of those dystopian sci-fi movies where people are injected with work drugs or given obedience pills? I mean, not that anybody's forcing you to drink coffee at work, but it's always sitting there, silently saying "This company does not respect that you're tired. Do something about it." Man, when I have a company (if I ever do) there will be a nap room, and you will get a nap allowance and that nap allowance will be respected dammit.

Of course, all of this ranting is from somebody who loves drinking coffee. And does feel like his days should be packed with gobs more productivity. Sigh.