Stu kills me. It’s always all-or-nothing with everything he does.

Like, every three months or so, he decides he’s not drinking soda anymore, he’s just going to drink water. So he’ll do this cold turkey thing for a week or so, then slide into just having some juice or lemonade or something every once in a while. That lasts a couple of days until he moves to diet soda of some nature… which also only lasts a couple of days until he skips directly to the Mountain Dew. If they had Jolt at work, he’d probably have hit that long ago.

That cracks me up - he can’t just stick on the diet soda or maybe something a little lighter, he goes right from water to the Mountain Dew. If the guy was a poker player, he’d have a pair of twos and go all in.

The latest Stu craze is coffee. Up until about a week ago, Stu had never had a single cup of coffee. When you offered him one or urged him to try it, he’d politely decline. Not sure why, whether it was that he didn’t think it’d taste good, or that it didn’t sound good, or something else. He just wasn’t interested.

Somehow last week Sara broke him down and got him into a Starbucks. Hoo boy. Here’s kind of how it went last week:

Tuesday: Went to Starbucks, had first coffee. Pretty good! Going to have to try this again. Thursday: Went back to Starbucks after work, this time with Trav and Jenn. Had a mocha. Fantastic! Friday: Went to Starbucks at lunch. Decided I need to try one of everything on the menu. Started at the top with the standard “cup of coffee.” Will work through all specialty items. Saturday: Stopped in at Bed Bath and Beyond as well as Fred Meyer to look at coffee machines. Did you know you can brew this in your own home? Brilliance! I must have one. Found one that appealed to me, but decided to do a little research before committing. Sunday: Went back to Bed Bath and Beyond and picked up a nice coffee machine. Trekked past Starbucks for an “official” travel mug because the ones at Bed Bath and Beyond, well, they don’t quite profess my newfound love of coffee the way it needs to be broadcast. Also stopped by Fred Meyer and ground me up a couple different types of coffee (roughly two pounds worth - I anticipate tearing through this like it’s going out of style). Can’t wait to get this stuff home and set up my shrine to the coffee god. I have a tatami mat that will sit perfectly in front of it, and I can face the whole thing to the east so I can see the rising sun as my fragrant new coffee brews to perfection. Next stop, self-actualization!

I won’t lie - I can’t say I didn’t egg him on just a little bit. It’s kind of fun to get swept up in Stu’s waves. I mean, it did lead to bongos before, so I’m curious to see where this one will go. Sara, you’ve created a monster.