It's amazing what a cup of coffee will do for a person.

I can wake up, eyes pasted shut, hungover, late for work, skuzzy and cranky and with my first sip feel humanity flowing back into me. It's astounding.

Some people would argue that coffee is addictive, like cigarettes or booze. It probably is. I don't care. If they announced tomorrow that there was a direct link between coffee and cancer I'd still drink it.

Okay, I'd cut back a little.

My parents are both coffee addicts. They have a pot in the morning and sometimes a pot in the afternoon, too. I know their habit got me started; I can remember having little sips from their cups when I was a kid. But I didn't actively start drinking the stuff until college.

Funny though, out of their five children, I am the only one who drinks coffee regularly, every day. No one else picked up the cup. My one sister will drink it if she is visiting them, and she has a coffeemaker but only gets it out when they are in town. This I think is weird, but it works for her.

There is something about coffee. That glorious waft that hits your nose when you open the bag; rich and full of the promise of pleasure. The happy clatter of beans in the grinder, the wheeeee of the grinder smashing them up, the steady drip and hiss of the coffeemaker. The scent. Bitter and rich at the same time and even though I've had thousands upon thousands of cups and know how it's going to taste, that first sip always tastes like the first time.

I think I'll have another cup.