One of my hobbies, something that I do regularly, is take various friends out for coffee. I rotate through a group of six or so and either do breakfast (for the ones at work) or evening coffee or breakfast coffee. It’s a tradition I started in 2009 and have carried into this year. I have to be deliberate about it otherwise it won’t happen. These 1-on-1 times are occasions when I will reveal stuff about myself that I will not share in a group setting. I know that some people feel comfortable sharing more intimate details about themselves in group contexts, but not me. I prefer to pick and choose to whom I reveal stuff to, that is, not all at once but instead in a 1-on-1 setting. That’s just the way I am.
The thing is that one of my friends is someone I have gone out to lunch with but he has never seen me drink coffee in 2 and a half years. I actually don’t like coffee. When I go to a coffee place I have to get one that’s loaded down with sugar otherwise I can’t drink it. That’s why I don’t drink coffee, because the amount of sugar I need to consume it is something I do not drink a lot of (I rarely consume abundances of sugar and have been like this for 2005). So he challenged me that he’s one day going to catch me drinking it. I accepted that challenge. He will never see me drink a cup of coffee in his presence. But in order to do this challenge, there had to be ground rules:
- Seeing me drink coffee counts as two consecutive swigs. It can’t be a sip, it’s got to be a swig.
- Pictures do not count. He either has to see me do it live or via streaming web cam.
- Every year that he does not see me drink coffee earns me a “swig credit.” Five swig credits earns me the right to drink one cup of coffee in his presence and it doesn’t count against me.
- Coffee loaded down with sugar, like a caramel macchiato or cinnamon dolce latte, counts.
- If I lose the bet, I have to buy him a cup of coffee. If I win, he has to buy me one.
I’m looking forward to this challenge.