For someone who is 99% committed to the principle of not drinking coffee within the first 90 minutes to 2 hours of waking up, drinking a can of cold brew at 4:00 am on the way to the airport is quite an experience. I wasn’t that tired upon waking at 3:30 this “morning,” which I think is pretty common in these one-off situations. It’s a dramatic change from the ordinary, and my body didn’t feel very deeply asleep at all last night to begin with (unfortunately). So I hopped out of bed and got dressed, zipped up my suitcase, chugged some water, and cracked open a cold brew can while awaiting my Uber driver. I don’t know why this just felt right. Perhaps in part because I had bought this one single can for the weekend and never ended up drinking it, and didn’t want to leave it all alone in the fridge while I was gone for the week. And in part because it just sounded good and right. I feel great now, and will just have to anticipate the crash later. It’s kind of inevitable, given that my body is recovering from little to no sleep while camping two nights ago, working through an entire Olympic triathlon yesterday, and again getting little sleep last night. We’re on the move, that’s all. I like it this way. Anyways, while I drink coffee on the daily (not a ton though, really only one, maybe two cups of black coffee a day), I never have it first thing upon waking, and certainly never at 4am. So, I feel it. Which is nice, honestly. I never really feel the effects of caffeine on my system, but rather it generally makes me feel normal and I will experience lethargy and a headache without it. I know, not great. But I accept this as a consequence of being a coffee enthusiast (addict?) and it’s fine by me. So anyways this morning, I had a fun, energetic conversation with my uber driver all the way to LAX. His name was Ye; he moved here from China 21 years ago, had to wait 3 years until his wife could come meet him, and they now have three kids here. He drives as his full time job, but hates his Tesla (which surprised me) because it takes so long to charge and has a terrible range (according to Ye. I am no tesla driver so I’ll trust his word). Now I sit waiting for my gate feeling much more alive and well than some of the people I observe around me, embracing this caffeinated energy, a general determination to stay “on” today, and the excitement of my upcoming journey: heading to San Francisco for a conference, seeing some friends, coworkers, and my dad. It must be all of this that has motivated me to sit here in terminal two typing away like a madwoman at 5:00 am. Inspiration can be hard to come by sometimes so I’ll take what I can get.