The Caffeine Slope

Overcast skies never looked so soothing before. There was a different, crisp waft drifting through her floor. And then she was reminded when she saw a couple office chairs on desks that the carpets had been cleaned over the weekend. Still, it was a surprise for it to smell anything but unpleasant or stale.

She had mixed feelings. She knew being at work was better than sitting at home bored out of her mind... but she still longed to be anywhere but here. But for now she'd deal. I mean, if she wanted a paycheck, she'd have to.

'Let the daydream began,' she thought... 'Any moment now. You can start...'

But there was nothing. For once her mind was blank. Was she stuck? She thought back to yesterday and scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. 'Wasn't the message the universe was saying yesterday that something NEW was about to start?'

She supposed it didn't really have a time stamp with that message. Ugh. Or it was time-less. Up to her--'yay,' she thought with un-enthused retort. She hated when things were up to her. She hated taking initiative but she always did because no one else around her did. It was super annoying. She guessed this was different though since it had to do with her own life. It's not like a fairy godmother was just going to pop in, wave her wand and make everything shinier.

Or she could pretend everything glowed and she was a unicorn... she had enough paraphernalia to do so. She had said so many times to her friends, "I'm a unicorn in a human body". Why not pretend it was true for once?

She greeted her desktop by typing her password in the little box and thought passive-aggressively, 'Maybe I should change my password to imhere.donttalktome! But meh, too long.'
She realized that the reason she must feel so fluid, like everything was blurring together and she wasn't really sitting at her desk, ready to work, was the 'no caffeine' rule she had recently added to her diet. Ugh. She knew eventually it would blow over and be okay but this week was going to be hell. The last time she did this to herself it was too. But the 2nd week was glorious. She had found herself having more energy than ever before and not needing to rely on caffeine. The secret was to remove the sugar and starch and caffeine - basically ALL the 'fake food' that America processed in factories and threw up from their machines.
She was at war with sugar and all processed chemicals. They had invaded her body like microscopic parasites and in order to destroy them she needed to starve them. So even though it caused the host (her) pain temporarily, she was willing to do it for the sake of her long-term health.

Her daydream capabilities suddenly came back to her as she imagined sipping a hot crafted caramel press coffee, the warm liquid making a velvet pathway down her throat while steam grazed her tired face. You know that sometimes even the smell of coffee can wake you up? She was willing to try it. She stood up and walked over to the temporary abode of the coffee maker.

She took a whiff and held it in for a good 10 seconds before breathing out, letting the coffee-shadow meditate and circle within her. Then sat back down. She blissfully ignored the yawn that tried to escape her mouth and instead went to work.
A slow, steady work ethic bled through her veins and even though the lethargic spirit was still attached to her limbs, the shadow momentum of the coffee stench pushed her on. 'Only a mere 7 hours to go...'

...

After her daydream of coffee seeped away (in reality it only took like 2 minutes) and a few hours of work was behind her she languidly slid back in her not-so-comfy chair, laying her head back and closed her eyes for a minute.
"You better not be sleepin'." A voice cascaded harshly over to her cubicle. She slid one eye open and saw her coworker Sandy with a hand on one hip, the other leaning across her cubicle wall.

She spun to face her and frowned.

"Like you'd do any different if you didn't have your hourly cup of Joe." She sat up in her chair again grudgingly.

"Well I'm not crazy like you."

"Who said you had to be crazy to take a quick nap in order to work more efficiently?"

"But you just got here like 30 minutes ago."

She looked up at her coworker and opened her mouth but closed it again. 'If I had caffeine I bet I could come up with a reply' she thought.

"Hmm. I can tell you need a nap. This conversation seems stunted." Sandy passed the mug she was holding into her cubicle. "Here. You need it more than me."

Zoe looked at it. Drool was probably seeping from her lips.

"Seriously. Take it."

She sighed. "I can't."

"Why?"

She pursed her lips and folded her arms. "I'm detoxing from caffeine."
"Well that's completely up to you Zoe. Hope your detox is better tomorrow. Maybe you should get some sleep."
As Sandy walked away, Zoe cranked out, "But I did!"
"Four hours is not getting 'sleep'."

Zoe found herself mumbling to herself her never-ending excuse. "But I had to watch the next episode. It kept ending on a cliffhanger..."

She stared at her computer screen and sighed.

Her second whiff and brief social conversation was enough to keep her going for about an hour. It was now almost 10:00 AM and Zoe was getting the droops. (Her eyelids were drooping every 2 minutes) So she stood up and stretched and started jumping up and down, shocking her body awake. It didn't work... well, maybe for a short time. 

Sandy was back. She eyed Zoe as she resumed her jumping jacks and just continued to stare until Zoe was firmly on the ground again. 

"Are you awake now?"

"Uhhhh... define 'awake'." She air quoted. 

"A state in which your eyes stay open for more than 15 minutes and your brain is able to stay on task without being reminded to stay focused every 5 minutes." 

"That's a.. very unique way of defining the word awake." 

Sandy raised her eyebrow, waiting for an answer.

"According to that definition, no." 

"Thought so." And just like that Sandy made her rounds behind Zoe and walked back to her desk. 

"Wh--You're not gonna help me?" She looked over her shoulder and just saw Sandy just shrug her shoulders and continue walking away from her. 

Zoe let another sigh go and her tired brain starting the annoying song of "Let it Go". "NO!"She did not want to be singing the same song in her head the rest of the morning. She needed to find another catchy, less annoying song. So she got on Youtube. 

She realized that by trying to stay awake and not simply taking a power nap, she spent more time trying to stay awake than actually working... 

So she did the only sensible thing she could do. She took her break early. It didn't really matter anyway. The work was slow and just basic computer work. 

Zoe grabbed her jacket which held her car key and headed toward the exit. She spotted Sandy across the hall and decided to ignore her questioning gaze. 'Judge me all you want. I'm gonna get some sleep and be good after my nap!'

As she rode the elevator down to her destination, she set an alarm for 20 minutes. 

She couldn't wait to snuggle into her donut pillow.