One afternoon when I was in college I stopped by our local
natural foods store to see if they carried that chai that comes in the waxed
cardboard box. The kind that you could just pour into a mug and microwave. It
was Lent and in an uncustomary move I decided to give up coffee. I wasn't a
coffee snob at that point - I drank the pumpkin and hazelnut flavored stuff -
but I depended on that heart thrumming rush to get me through
late nights of writing essays about Emily Dickinson.
