I did a 5k!

I know it's a little late to the game on this one, but on Thanksgiving, I, Kaitie Ryan, the laziest human being known to man, ran a 5k. I know that sounds like a really anticlimactic statement, but I did it. And I'm so damn proud of myself. Running in a race was awesome. This race happened to be absolutely cold and late to start, but it was unbelievable. I ran it with my friend and her boyfriend was holding the world's greatest motivational sign and it was so incredible. The adrenaline from the cold, the crowd, the fellow runners and literally every single aspect of the day was so inspiring. Addicting, even. I cannot wait to run another one. I am going to run another one. Once I get my kidneys to get themselves together, I am getting back out there. 10k time, baby.
Our first mile was a little slow due to the high volume of people (there was close to 1000 runners), but we finished right in the middle of the pack with a time of about 32 minutes. I was so excited to complete it, I wasn't even concerned with how fast I was running. I literally blinked, looked up and saw my friend who was two paces in front of me mouthing for me to sprint the final leg. I sprinted, flew past my parents cheering me on, saw my friend's boyfriend, crossed the finish line, and was filled with pure joy.
A 5k is so doable for anyone. Dogs were running 5k's. However, the personal level of achievement I found in running 3 miles with 1000 strangers was something so worth trying for. Not only that, I was on cloud 9 so much that day, that my uncle convinced me to, in addition for the half marathon, go for a sprint triathlon next fall. Good God. I can't wait.

Here I am looking REAL ratchet on the right at 7:45am freezing my peanuts off by the starting line

A literal and figurative journey

I am not a runner. I am not athletic. I am not able to become a runner or athletic. These are things that up until last week I repeated in my head. But it has stopped and I have a new reel of phrases that I tell myself. “I will become a runner”, “I can do this” “Just do better than yesterday”.

By April, a previously self-described “lazy turd” is going to run a half marathon.

I am not doing this for anyone but myself. When I would get bursts of wanting to be physically fit, it wasn’t because I wanted to do it for me; it was because I wanted other people to see me a certain way. Fortunately, this time, I don’t care what other people think of my goal. I would be thrilled to develop a support unit, but if people don’t think I can do it, even better. I cannot wait to prove you wrong. Deep down, this is a journey for me to see how much I can accomplish. I know I have a strong mind, but I want a body to match. And here is where I start.

A week and a half ago, I wasn’t sure that I could run half a mile. I also hold the belief that treadmills ruin lives. I absolutely LOATHE treadmills. As I sat in my room before class, I got an unshakable feeling that I wanted to run. I decided right then and there that I was going to…..tomorrow. But then I remember being like “no. this starts today”.  I got up, full of motivation, tied my shoes and walked outside. I ran a mile. Motivation literally drove me past a point at which I whole-heartedly thought I would have to stop at. The smile that was probably on my face was outrageous. I loved it. I signed up for a 5k later that day.

A 5k may not seem like something that should be counted as a huge accomplishment, but to me it is. It’s going to mark the start of my road racing journey and it’s going to be absolutely amazing when I finish. It might be a little dramatic if I tear up when I do finish, but I’ll probably want to. Given the amount of limitations I thought I had on being able to be physically active, this is so liberating. I spring out of bed in the morning to run before class and I don’t mind that much. I find myself getting lost on runner’s websites and forget that I have other things to do. I have such positivity in the fact that after just about 2 weeks in, this is going to become a part of my life. I also cannot wait to look back on my accomplishments in a month or two and think “I can’t believe I was so excited that I ran two miles!”

My  focus is locked on the half marathon in April, and up until then, I am going to do 5 and 10k races to give myself little milestones along the way. The support unit I have already started developing is awesome. My mom even offered to bike alongside me sometimes. My friend is going to help me get to and run the half with me. The support I am giving to myself is keeping myself honest and realistic. I also am not going to allow myself to give up. I have to get a massive jaw surgery within the next month or two and my doctor said that I won’t be able to run for a few weeks, but he didn’t say I couldn’t speed walk! Loopholes rock! I’m not going to let things hold me back, physically and mentally. I am going to do this. 

A Scientific Summer!

My summer classes finally ended yesterday and since I’m bed-ridden under 3 blankets, I would like to tell you about how strange…ly hilarious  one of them was.

I took classes for two summer semesters and took two classes each go around. The first semester, I took an environmental science class due to a requirement I had to fulfill and it was hilarious. My class had a total of 6 kids in it…me, 5 boys and one elderly woman who wore a fleece pull over, ski coat, knee socks, long pants and what I can only assume were gloves that belonged to a mime. She of course plopped down next to me, but THANKFULLY decided she was a bit warm with her layers and took out one of those paper fans I assume the sell at the Kentucky Derby and started violently fanning herself. Propelling air into my face and causing my notes to blow wildly about the table we shared. She didn't last long as she wholeheartedly disagreed with the idea of being environmentally friendly and her two simple reasons being “God will take care of it” and “They did none of this in the olden days so I think we’re okay”. She had a lot to say on the matter, but things took a turn when she was 100% convinced that there was a science machine in a book she read that could control the weather and make it rain whenever you needed/wanted. I held my tongue on responding until my professor moved on because I almost asked her if the book she was referring to was “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs”.

This class also took three field trips- one to the middle of the woods to count and identify trees, one to a wastewater plant and then to a garbage plant. Thank God we car-pooled to the woods, because for the next two field trips, I got so lost and ended up being like 45 minutes late to each one….and almost had to ask for directions at a strip club that happened to be hiring. Luckily I didn't have to go inside because I just turned around and asked the state police down the road….which makes me wonder a little bit about that placement of establishments.

At the wastewater plant, I missed the part of the tour with the waste and the water together which “was the worst smell ever” according to one of my classmates. We went on the tour of the water purification and as we saw it being routed back into a river, and I figured the tour was over…. WRONG. We still had to see where all the sludge (aka a county’s worth of shit) went to. I should have taken the sign when the tour guide opted out of going to the room because my body was NOT prepared for what happened next: vats upon vats of fermenting sludge…right before my eyes and nose. It was the worst thing I have ever smelled. I gagged a little, but one kid responded to the smell by laughing, another by saying “yep, that’ll  grow some hair on your balls” to which another kid laughed, his shirt slipped off his nose and he caught a whiff, bolted out of the room and vomited. Absolutely hilarious. Hilarious until we all exited into the lobby and all realized the smell has soaked into our clothes and hair. I excused myself to find a tub of acid to bathe in, when I found the mother of all employee bathrooms complete with designer soaps and perfumes and showers with complimentary towels and things. At least the plant allows the employees the opportunity to cleanse the shit smell before leaving.

The trip to the garbage plant wasn't nearly as eventful except for having Breaking Bad’s very own Hank as our tour guide, complete with the slight bite of racism to whatever he says.

Somehow, after failing 3 quizzed and taking a final where I was only mildly confident in 4 of the 100 questions I answered, I pulled out an A-.

None of my other summer classes quite compared to the intensity of the science class, but I did take two levels of sign language and made friends with a 30 year old bouncer who is going into nursing at the same school I go to. He gave me a free fake ID of a person who looks absolutely nothing like myself and then asked me to go to Denny’s with him at 6AM. Overall though, the class was filled with hilarious people but he was a stand out  for sure… because 9 times out of 10, I had to teach him sign language and he had a full on melt down when he found out he couldn't take ASL 2 this summer. You can see my final project for that class HERE. 

Well, I hope you enjoyed a little taste of my summer, and I’ll blog again soon 

My first adult-type outing!

This is exciting for me. I feel like an actual adult. I recently went on a long weekend road trip with one of my best friends from high school to Ithaca, New York. It was a 6 hour car ride to stay with some friends for a weekend of going to the zoo, taking a lot of group selfies and eating GIANT s'mores. BUT, the best part of the weekend was when my friend and I broke off on our own and went wine tasting on the finger lakes. I had never considered myself a wine drinker, and I still don't, but I can say that I learned a lot about wine, tasting it and for those who are interested in doing the same, here is a guide to the day we had!

Since we were staying very close to Ithaca we started our tasting journey in Ithaca at Six Mile Creek. It was so local and lovely, a perfect first stop for a rookie such as myself. As we tried our first wine, my friend, Kate, filled me in on her super sophisticated wine tasting rating system.

If we loved a wine, it got a big smiley face with its teeth showing and potentially some hair. If we liked it a lot, but weren't in love, the wine earned a smiley face with optional eyebrows. If we were indifferent, it got a straight line for a smile, if we were erring on the side of not liking it, it got a slanted line, and if we hated it.... big frown.

At Six Mile Creek, I tried 3 white wines, a red and two sweet wines and overall the wines were pretty good. I decided that I prefered the sweet wines and didn't care for the red wine at all. I also decided that my mom would enjoy the white wines I tried, but didn't end up buying anything. My friend bought a sweet wine that she and I agreed was the best of the tasting.

 This was the view from the parking lot... it was amazing.

Before we went to the second winery, we took a quick pit stop at Taughannock Falls on Cayuga Lake to see a gorgeous waterfall.

Our next stop was just up Cayuga Lake at a winery called Frontenac Point. It, in short, was amazing. The people there, both employees and patrons were unbelievably nice and the atmosphere was so relaxed. There were dogs running in the back and the inside was intimate and friendly. We each bought a bottle of wine for our mom and dad, respectively, and most of all received a lot of help as to where we should go next on our tour. There were locals tasting wines who pointed out some of their favorite spots as well as the employees who told us about some of the things that other wineries had to offer. We definitely stayed there the longest and felt most comfortable asking questions and asking for pictures out back. Both Kate and I HIGHLY recommend this winery to anyone who may be new to the game and/or looking for a lot of knowledge and an unbeatable atmosphere. 

 The wine I bought for my mom, was called Seyval Blanc and Kate bought a bottle of their Stay Sail White.

 The people at Frontenac Point recommended that since we enjoy sweeter wines, to go to Lucas Vineyards. Both the employees and the local people there told us it was a "cannot miss winery for those who like sweet wines". When we arrived, we were not wholly impressed with the atmosphere, after just coming from Frontenac, but it was definitely an attraction. The gift shop was amazingly large and the wine tasting area just sort of blended in. The woman who served us the wine was very knowledgeable but not very engaging (which we have chalked up to her not wanting to deviate from her little spiel), and the wine was delicious. We were kind of bummed at how much we enjoyed the wines because of the atmosphere that went with it, but I ended up buying a bottle of red wine, no less, for my dad. The best part about the red wine was that I enjoyed it, when I generally have found I don't care for red wine one bit because it tastes a bit like going to church, which I have never really associated that with fine wine. The woman had explained that this wine was the "red wine for white wine drinkers". I didn't manage a picture, but the wine is called TUGBOAT RED.

We weren't planning on going to the next winery, but we are so glad that we did. The people at Frontenac told us that the view at Thirsty Owl wineries was alone worth the drive. My friend absolutely adores owls so I wanted to go to see if I could find something she may like, but when we got there the view was INSANE. It was breath-taking. I think Kate and I stood in the parking lot just staring at the view for upwards of ten minutes. We considered eating lunch at their bistro, but the wait was long and we were hungry. We decided to do a quick tasting and then find some grub. The wines were not something that we liked as a whole, but there were two in particular that I enjoyed. The first was called 2011 Snow Owl and the second Tailspin.

We realized quickly into the drive that we were in the middle of nowhere. Well, we were in the middle of Amish country. We decided this when we got stuck driving behind a horse and buggy along a massive field. Since we were so hungry and only had cheese-its to snack on, we decided to heed more of Frontenac's advice and go to Cayuga Ridge Winery for lunch. We were told that they had amazing pizza (of all things) that is made in a copper oven. We looked down the driveway at Thirst Owl to see a sign for Cayuga Ridge and were sold. They were literally across the grass from each other so we decided to take a gander. We sat outside at the lovely little restaurant with a full view of the copper oven they cooked the pizza in and we happened to be stationed next to the owners of the winery who were extremely nice. We ordered the BBQ chicken ranch pizza and it was delicious, and perfect to share. The prices were reasonable and the people very nice. It was definitely a place to go, even for lunch, without the wine tasting. 

 After a nice lunch, we decided to switch lake trails and go to Seneca Lake. The wineries were much closer together so we were able to go to more in a shorter amount of time. We were told (once again at Frontenac) that a place called Tickle Hill had dandelion wine and we decided that it would be an adventure to go. So we did just that. We were shocked to see how different it was from the wineries on Cayuga lake, up to and including the types of wines they had. We tasted a pineapple wine. The flavor is open to interpretation, but we really enjoyed the stark difference between the previous wineries. It was here that our tour plan changed again, as the woman helping us told us to go to Rasta Ranch, because it was unlike any other winery she's been to. We were intrigued...

I'm sure you can guess the type of atmosphere Rasta Ranch was. It was hilarious. The people were so welcoming, nice, and treated everyone like family. A girl was even celebrating her 21st birthday there- shot glass necklace and everything. We tried the wine... from jugs, laughed a lot and had fun exploring the shop bursting at the seems with handmade jewlery. They also had this cool tradition that you write on a one dollar bill and they hang it up around the interior and the next time you come, you have to find it. We of course wrote on one... we couldn't think of anything fun to write so we just did our names. There was also the fattest dog we had ever seen and its name, fittingly, was Buddha. We didn't end up buying any wine but we enjoyed the experience a lot!

Our second to last stop was Hazlitt Vineyard. Frontenac told us that this place was a lot of fun. We went as the day was winding down, so we may have missed the boat on that one, but the wine tasting experience was still different from the other wineries. Instead of crackers, we got popcorn, and one of the wines that we tried was served with chocolate (score!) The atmosphere was really relaxed and engaging, and we really liked the wine overall. We both kicked ourselves on the journey home for not buying wine, but were excited to know that you can buy it in Massachusetts! I, of course, plan on buying the Berry Bramble wine that was served with chocolate. It was probably the best wine I had tasted all day. Another aspect we really liked was that you could buy teeny tiny bottles for only a few dollars if you wanted, and they also sold the wines in pouches complete with nozzles.

Our last stop of the day was all the way around the other side Seneca Lake and we honestly only went for the name. Pompous Ass Winery was not a recommendation, but more of a we laughed at the name and just had to go. I wasn't wild about the wines, personally, but I knew my parents would have enjoyed them a lot more. Kate felt the same and bought her mom a bottle of Highfalutin red wine. I didn't try it, but it is apparently a medium bodied wine. 

 Overall, the day was incredible, aside from the fact that we consumed an unruly amount of food and liquid and were full well into the next day. We went to 9 wineries and tasted at 8 of them in about 7 hours. I felt so adult, so I didn't so much mind the bloat and cannot wait to grace another chunk of the wineries of the finger lakes with my rookie, wine-tasting presence.

PS- find me on twitter @kaitieryan or tumblr at kaitieryan.tumblr.com

Things I don't understand about girls

I know this subject has been beaten to death a few times over, but it’s my turn to take a swing. I have 21 years of solid anecdotal confusion about my own gender- I think that says something on the subject just there. All of these observations come from the sheer volume of girls I am around all the time. At school, my graduating major class has 1 boy total, and as a result, aside from the odd elective, all of my classes are all girls. I also have had 10 different girls as roommates over 3 years due to suites and transfers- so I think I have a variety of resources. So here we go.

They take forever to get ready

If you gave a girl all day, she would literally use every last second of it to get ready to go somewhere. I would use it, but it’s a huge pain in the ass. Painting your face with 6 layers of makeup, damaging your hair in multiple fashions and THEN tearing the contents of your wardrobe to shreds to find an outfit is a grueling and intensive process of which I try to stay out of as much as possible.  Not for some people though. If we decide to go out by 11, I know girls who will decide to start to shower at like 9pm. For real?  If I know that the chances are high that I will be going out later, I will prepare in advance. I will shower in the morning and get my hair to a state that isn’t unsightly. That’s probably it. If I haven’t sweat profusely during the day, there’s no need to shower and wash your hair again. Because then you have to dry and style it after and before you know it, 3 hours have passed. The process alone to get ready for girls is too much. Hair, makeup, outfit etc… ITS TOO MUCH. I like to think that my hair and makeup take me the shortest time because I tend to get fed up and just whack makeup on. I take a century to pick out my outfit, though. No matter how hard I try to prepare in advance it still takes me forever and I usually pick the original outfit after I try on like 10 others.  With my roommates, it has gotten so bad when we go out, that if I am the first one ready, by the time everyone else is, I’ve already had time to take a nap and like 50 selfies of myself going from looking good to a something resembling me wearing a mask of a melting gothic clown.

They are hypocrites

Hypocrite may be a strong word, so I guess “serial flippy-flopper” may be more appropriate. What I mean by this is that girls say things, and then do the exact opposite. I, unfortunately, included. But let me explain: I hate girls. I just do. However, I am mostly friends with girls just because I am so painfully awkward around boys. It’s genuinely embarrassing, but something I am working on because girls are just so finicky. Perhaps this is why I’m in a constant state of such cynicism. However, I have noticed some girls who have taken this a dramatic step further.

Names and exact scenario have been changed, but general example is the same.

A girl I know had a friend who received a gift to the tune of...let's say a vegetable seeds. These two friends planned on sharing a big garden. But when she found out about the vegetables, she freaked out about how she only wanted to plant flowers and then she, as a result, refused to share a garden with her friend and because it might touch the flowers she wanted to plant. During the harvest, the girl who insisted on only planting flowers started exclusively planting vegetables because all of a sudden she loved them. What happened when I learned of this via social media was something along the lines of curiosity and “are you actually serious?”.

I do understand some of the flippy flopping, however. For instance, if I didn’t hang out with any girls and really stuck to my guns about hating them, I would be a total loner and just sit on this blog and write about the devastating lack of friends I have on my own behalf. But for some people, its just a terrifying fear of not fitting in, so they change opinions faster than a quick change artist. This statement could be a whole breakdown in and of itself but for now, I press on.

Constant new best friends

In keeping with the flip flop theme, girls somehow get new best friends every day. This one particular girl I know updates her instagram on the reg and it’s of her and random ass girls she meets and/or gets drunk with and before you know it, they are lifelong friends who would not be whole without each other. I find this confusing. How do you know who is your best friend and who isn’t? Do they feel the same way? How many holiday gifts am I looking at buying here? If I go out every weekend for 2 months and adopt a new BFF each time, that’s at least 8 gifts I’m obligated to get people. I’m broke as hell- I hope my new friends like macaroni art in the shape of what I think the first letter of their name is AS WE ARE STRANGERS. More than that, the more you say something, the faster the word loses meaning. If I call everyone I meet my new best friend, when I actually do get a best friend based on the normal best friend qualifications other than “is popular” and “will get me into bars and by drinks” will I be able to tell? What happens if I spend all my money on monogrammed macaroni art for strangers rather than a hilarious and sentimental gift for my actual best friend? It’s just so confusing to me! Unfortunately, like everything else I’ve listed here, I have fallen victim to this as well… once or twice….until I realized that I was being a huge idiot.  

Here I am with my casual best friends Niall and Zayn. We met at a party and i had to take so many pics and let everyone know how we were going to be best friends forever and ever. Good going Kaitie. 

Competition

Girls like girls that make them look good. Whether it is physical or social, its 100% true. What I mean by this is girls scope out other people they think will either help them feel fantastic about themselves or ones that help them climb the social ladder.

Physical: Girls want to feel hot. They want to feel like they are the best looking girl within a particular square footage. To do so, girls scope out other girls who may be good looking, but not so much that it is more than them. OR girls are drawn to other girls that are at the same level, so they can form a clump of attractiveness and lure in gaggles of men. I have stumbled into a similar situation, only I am without a doubt the ugly duckling of the group- even though it was just my roommates. All my roommates happened to be gorgeous and I, being average, look like the evil witch from Snow White when I stand next to them.  I do however feel socially more popular next to them… but it is an obvious sign of a charity invite when you take a picture and take a second to pick out the one thing that doesn’t match the others… however, I have had a taste of how it feels to be on the top of the looks ladder and though it was kind of exhillirating, it felt so cheap. I’d rather be commended on achievements that mean something rather than happening to be the skinniest girl in a 10 meter radius. But that is just something I’ve learned about myself through this.

Social: Girls name drop as a sign that they know more and cooler people than you do. It’s a very social way to selectively pick your friends based on who can introduce you to the most people the fastest and most superficially. My now former roommates, between the 5 of them know everyone. I know no one so it was literally like I had to keep a running list of who’s who. When we’d go out, I felt so out of place, but so BA walking next to girls who literally had to stop every 3 feet to say hi to like 6 people. However this bit me hard in the ass when I was deemed “too embarrassing” to be seen with them due to my general lack of concern of what other people think about me, as I am too busy having fun. I kid you not, a few of them sat me down and told me “we all want to hang out as roommates, but you embarrass us when we go out”.  That conversation actually haunts me…so thanks guys… as a result, I just go for people who actually make me happy and are fun to be around.

My rant about how girls have shaped me into the cynic that I am today has come to an end for now as there are way more experiences and generalizations I haven’t tapped into yet to get my message out to the typical, college girl girls out there:

Be better than this, ladies. I know we aren’t perfect as I have included some examples of how I fit into each one of these categories, but I strive to learn something from it. Be happy with you, not the people you strategically place around you to look better. Find a stance on something and stick to it… have real friends and not cheap instagram best friends who you take a picture with to feel popular and awesome- real friends are so much better. You can create memories, not spam on your follower’s instagram feed of 100 different girls who you talk shit about in your spare time. Most of all, stop caring what people will think about the people you have around you and start caring about the people you have around you. It’s way easier and more fun 

Things I don't understand

Things I don’t understand:

I like to try to hold myself to the philosophy of “to each his own”. I also like to think that I am an open-minded person. There are, however, a number of things that I straight up don’t understand. While I can see the potential upside and credentials to each of the following items, I still don’t see how these things make sense. Enlighten me, please.

1.     1.  The first thing that I do not understand is VIP booths at clubs. I go to college and one of the hot spots at said college is quite possibly and unfortunately one of the dirtiest locales there are. It’s one of those places where you go there once to see what the fuss is and hopefully never ever go back. Sadly, I have been a handful of times, because I am an awesome friend. Recently, this club was so grotesque that it had to close and be reborn as something that could put the party shuttle that carts us to the club from respective colleges back in business. One of the new attractions is a VIP booth. Dirty club, I ask you this: WHY? Yes, VIP booths provide a sense of hierarchy that people feel the need to spend money on, but even as a lowly broke college gal, when I go to the club, I don’t go to watch other people dance… I go to get down, krump battle and maybe even break-dance fight. I don’t understand how people from “The Hills” could just sit in a club and not dance. That’s like going to a nail salon, paying to get the most expensive treatment only to inhale acetone and nail dust.

2.   2.    Heat. When I jotted this down to go on about how I don’t understand why it’s so damn hot outside, it was 100 degrees outside and my camp counselor job resulted in me playing hide-and-seek and laying in a black flatbed of a truck in direct sunlight, where the only prize was severe burns on half of my body. Now that I’m getting around to this topic, it is in the negatives with a wind chill factor that literally makes going outside painful. So right now I would love heat. It’s a horrible cycle. I am freezing, and I wish for heat. I am sweating bullets and I wish for cold. So I suppose this isn’t valid but I felt like this had to be said.

3.     3.  Running: I so want to love running. Two of my roommates are actually in Florida right now preparing to run a half marathon two days from now. While I respect runners and wish I knew what they were talking about, I don’t understand how running for 2 hours straight is appealing. I don’t mind jogging for like 30 minutes for some cardio, but cannot wrap my brain around the psychology or physicality of marathons. I even tried to like running. I tried to see if I could love it and I also did it so I could do races with my roommates. I sort of gave up because while they’re running upwards of 10 miles I’m the loser who is like “alright! I can’t wait until I can run a 5k!”. that’s child’s play to them. So until I lose myself in running, my only conclusion so far is bitches be cray.

4.   4.    Cats- Cats are hiding something. I know they are. You can just tell they know more than you. And for some reason, they always know that I’m allergic as they like to sleep on my person, or more specifically on my face. What I don’t understand is how I can still want one a little bit. I’m not going to lie, I’m a little bit terrified of felines, but when they are so tiny and cute I melt. Once they start to grow, though I’ll have a cat sale. How can such a creature have such a disjointed effect on me?

5.  5.    Cats the musical: Since I sort of hate cats, I think I should tell you that it may or may not stem from a traumatic experience I had when I was nine. I saw Cats in the West End in London. I was mildly excited, but the second a grown man in a spandex onesie with a tail, ears and makeup crawled over my lap and into my mom’s, purring the whole time, something snapped. I also don’t understand why cats singing about their lives were such a big hit. Maybe Andrew Lloyd Webber really kept the target audience of middle-aged women in mind because they tend to like both musicals and cats. Way to go, man.

6.    6.   Decaffeination: People drink coffee for the jolt of energy they get, not the delightful taste. Once people get nice and addicted to the caffeine, they then start to maybe consider taste. When you take the caffeine out of a beverage, you take the fun out of it. I don’t crave coffee, I crave the caffeine to shake me back to reality and help me make it through my day without ending up sleep-drooling in class. If I drank coffee that was decaf, unless it was some cruel placebo situation, I would definitely not enjoy it as much as I would if I knew for a fact that the bitter taste of coffee would yield some pretty sweet concentration.