Must have Caffeine!

Image Credit: Amanda Robinson

This is the perfect picture of my current life. Here is my boyfriend Derek, my two sons Dimitri and Dominic, and my big baby girl Presley. I try to have a nice house, but let's keep it real, my house is always a disaster. These kids are full of energy that I wish I had so I can keep up with them.

My name is Amanda Robinson. I am usually somewhere in the background trying to capture moments like this. Life is short, life is crazy, and life sure does happen. Ready or not, here it comes!

Some things that I love are chocolate, traveling, and my kids. You do not understand what being in love really means until you hold your precious baby in your arms and instantly feel your heart melt like a hot knife through butter. I also love my boyfriend, my family, hard-core rap music, and feeling secure. And, last but not least, I love coffee.

I remember the first time I truly fell in love with coffee. My sister invited me to go on a brisk walk downtown and visit the South Bend Chocolate Café to grab a coffee. By coffee I mean Milk Chocolate Café Mocha. It was my first time having the delicious sweet and bitter treat, and my taste buds were not ready to experience such life in a cup.

Shortly after that I was job hunting and heard that the Chocolate Café was hiring, and I ended up getting a job there. I worked there for about three years. It was there, at the café, that I was able to learn and speak this odd coffee language, and then it happened. I became a coffee snob. All of a sudden Folger's was not the best part of waking up. I needed a real fix.

A little while after I began expressing my love for coffee, my sister introduced me to Starbucks. I am not sure if she is a bad influence or if she is brilliant. But, she suggested that I try the Cinnamon Dolce Latte, and ever since that day, I have spent a disturbing amount of money on gourmet coffee. I swear they put crack in their coffee beans. It is like heaven in a cup.

I am no expert at coffee by any means, but I do admit that have a bad addiction. It is my motivation to get up in the morning to get three young children ready for the day. It is also my motivation in the afternoon to keep taking care of the overwhelming amount of responsibilities and priorities.

Something always needs to be done. There is homework, housework, making meals, making memories with the kids, taking care of the kids, trips to the store, spending time with my boyfriend, paying bills, organizing, being a taxi driver, trying to have a social life, this list could go on and on. Life is exhausting, and I need caffeine to survive all this madness.

Coffee is definitely the way I get my daily pick-me-up in a cup, but I am aware there are other options to get caffeine and energy. My boyfriend drinks energy drinks while he is at his job that is very physically demanding. He says that the drinks, such as, ROCKSTAR give him that extra zing that he needs to get him through the work day and then come home and help out with everything. I worry about the negative effects that these energy drinks have, but I have not officially done any research yet.

Do you drink coffee or energy drinks? If so, then why that choice? Has anyone ever taken pills sold over the counter?