It is 3:32 AM and I am still awake because of a tiny red bottle and what I thought was a good idea.

I work evenings, helping high school kids study for school and prepare for the SAT and ACT. When I got to work today (yesterday now), I was really dragging. So I popped over to the grocery store next door and started looking for options.

As I’ve mentioned before, soda is a weakness of mine. I don’t even like the taste all that much, but I find it incredibly good to drink. It’s probably that insulin roller coaster ride that I’m hooked on. So I thought to myself that maybe this 5 hour energy I always hear about will actually be a better choice. After, it advertises that it doesn’t have any sugar.

So far, so good.

I check the label, and it’s pretty much what I expect: B-complex vitamins, caffeine, and what I call the Red Bull family (mainly taurine and glucuronolactone). The one I got was grape flavor.

Returning to my desk, I read the instructions. For a moderate energy boost, drink half a bottle. I drank half a bottle. “Grape” is an exaggeration. More like grape-esque medicine flavoring.

But hey, it worked. I felt a good jolt of chemically induced energy for the rest of my work day. I even felt it was a very benign cheat, if cheat it was.

Now it’s 3:32 AM though. I’m tired, but can’t sleep. On the bright side, I’m catching up on my RSS reading!