When I was growing up, I never liked tea or coffee. The latter is understandable, but the former, in England, is met with similar reactions to kicking over the Queen and throwing her crown into the mud. I also never liked most fizzy drinks. The long and short of it is, I grew up with little to no caffeine in my life.

Now, you may have noticed in my LJ that I've been very busy lately. This, combined with the clocks going back and it getting dark so much earlier, means I've been much more tired. In my third year, I tried to combat this by taking Pro Plus - just one tablet would usually be enough to perk me up for an entire morning, two would almost have me bouncing off the walls. Possibly not as healthy as getting enough sleep, but it worked.

This year, I've been trying a different tack. The other day, I tried buying myself a mocha. I was in too much of a hurry and didn't quite like it enough to finish it, I only had a little less than half, but I was intrigued. I figured, in an emergency, a whole mocha would be great to get me through it.

This morning was was such an emergency. After getting to bed at 1am, I had to be up at 7am to finish reading an article before a 9am seminar, where I'd have to discuss it in close detail. No way was I going to be awake enough without some kind of miracle. And lo, this miracle, I thought, was a mocha. So after I got up, I headed straight to O'Briens with my reading to get a mocha and finish my reading before heading off to the department.

..... If you have read the bit of Girl Genius where Agatha has coffee for the first time, you can probably get a good idea as to what I was like.

The reading was suddenly simple! It all made perfect sense! I bounded up to the seminar and sat there, buzzing, as everyone else slouched and tried to stay awake, and when the lecturer asked for our opinions, I found myself expressing them. Loudly.

"THIS GUY IS JUST RIDICULOUS I MEAN HE GOES ON AND ON LIKE SOME SENTIMENTAL IDIOT I MEAN OMG IT'S A CONSPIRACY WHAT THE HELL MAN CRY MOAR!!!"

"Er, that's a good point, Katie, does anyone else-?"

"AND THIS!! HOW THE HELL DOES FREUD FIT INTO THIS??? THEY HAVE NO PERSPECTIVE AND JUST GET EMOTIONALLY ATTACHED TO THE ISSUES AND IT'S REALLY REALLY STUPID!!!"

The seminar was an hour and a half, and by the end, I was fiddling with my pen A LOT and clicking it frequently. After being let out at the end, I was walking up to the library, and the world was so - sharp, and in focus, it was actually dizzying. I felt like I was drunk, or had a fever, and was wondering if this was what it was like to be on drugs. I was actually a little worried that the effects of the caffeine weren't showing any signs of wearing off, but actually seemed to be getting stronger. I had to go and sit in the library quietly for, like, an hour, and try to get my head together, because by now I was both dizzy and nauseous from being SO GODDAMN AWAKE.

It is now about seven hours since I had that mocha, and I'm finally starting to feel vaguely normal again. I can't believe I had such a strong reaction! I was just... so focussed and awake, and I could feel my body going "Dude, what the hell?..." and my brain going "SILENCE WORTHLESS PEON WE HAVE CLASSICS TO DO!!!! WE SHALL SHOW ALL THOSE SCHOLARS, SHOW THEM ALL!!! TODAY, THE DISSERTATION - TOMORROW, THE WORLD!!!"

Maybe the Agatha Clay comparison was even more appropriate than I thought...