There are a lot of cliches about programmers. Some of the more common ones include: the anti-social dweeb, the basement dwelling 30 year old living with his/her parents, the vampire (i.e. sleeping during the day, awake at night), and of course, the ravenous consumer of caffeine products.
Unfortunately, I fall into 2 of the above categories. I definitely prefer to work at night and I too, am a ravenous consumer of caffeine, and nicotine to boot. In the US, it was pretty uncommon to see me without a Dr. Pepper or Mountain Dew. Although I wish I didn’t drink so much soda, the simple fact is that I do, and the lack of caffeine can really mess up my work flow. But here in Mexico, I have a problem.
You see, there is plenty of soda available: Coca Cola, Pepsi, Sprite, Fanta, and a variety of Mexican brands. I don’t really like any of these though. You could say I’m a soda loyalist I suppose, but coming across Dr. P or Mt. Dew (the dynamic duo, as I call them) is nigh impossible here in Playa. Without my usual supply of the dynamic duo, I’ve had to make substitions with Coke, coffee, and anything else saturated in caffeine that I can tolerate.
However, on certain lucky days (it’s happened twice since we’ve been here), the miniscule shelf space reserved for Dr. P will be lightly stocked in WalMart. Today was one of those lucky days and I preceeded to buy them out of stock…which was five 12 oz. cans. For the curious, they are 4 pesos a piece. So today truly is a good day (I know that’s incredibly shallow) and now I have to ration my bounty until the next time I will stumble upon dumb luck. In the meantime, I think it’s time to chat with the doctor!
Jajaja – You learn quickly!! Buy it all or else you may not see it again for quite some time!!!
Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do when it comes to Dr. Pepper, right? We actually found some diet Dr. Pepper as well, which I normally abhor, but it’s strange, because here the diet and regular versions don’t taste much different… Is there a stronger similarity in the tastes of real sugar and aspartame versus corn syrup and aspartame back in the States? Beats me
I too am a Dr.P. snapper upper. Get’em while their hot.
Don’t get me started on the noises I make when on that very rare occasion I find a cream soda.
Haha, I understand. When I spot a Dr. Pepper I probably look like a 5 year old getting a birth day cake. Doesn’t bother me though!
I haven’t seen any cream soda down here either
— however, Walmart had 16(!!!) cans of Dr. Pepper today. Now they are in my fridge 