My friends and I used to go out to eat frequently. Now that restaurant meals are so spendy, we’ve switched to coffee dates. The problem? I am now drinking copious amounts of coffee which feeds an addiction I already had. Arranging dates for cuppas is giving my calendar caffeine headaches.

Addiction: When you have a need or urge to do something or use something that can interfere with your functioning in other areas of your life.

If you look online it is plain to see you can become addicted to anything. There’s a lot of information about alcohol and other drugs, the serious addictions: gambling, overspending, sex. This article is about the other kind. The “So what if I do?” kind.

We all have them, I’m pretty sure, maybe masquerading under the word habit. Mom’s been gone many moons now, but I still step over cracks.

My sis has eaten avocado daily since we found out it was good for you. An addiction? Well, yes, since she howls in hopelessness when the last one from Costco is so old it can’t hold up its own skin. Not sure what will happen when she finds out that coconut is also a health food nowadays.

I am addicted to the online version of the New York Times crossword. The morning is a loss without it. Tabasco pepper jelly goes with EVERYTHING. A friend falls to pieces if she can’t get up a good pickleball game each day. Writing these monthly in-depth and hard hitting articles is addictive. I am in the eighth year of it. I can’t stop. The editor should hold an intervention.

Meanwhile, I’ve just published a collection of 50 of these articles in a slender volume called “What Little I Know Now.”

Amazon got their enormous undies in a twist over it. No, not about my cover. Not about my content. But about my spine. For heaven’s sake. After three rejections for improper spine design, the book is available in paper or spineless ebook from Amazon. It will work its way into retail this month.

I admit this is my greatest addiction: I keep saying this book is the last one I’ll write.

And I keep breaking my word.

Linda B. Myers is a founding member of Olympic Peninsula Authors. Her novels are available at Pacific Mist in Sequim, Port Book and News in Port Angeles, and on Amazon.com. Contact her at myerslindab@gmail.com.