Ode to a Utopian Coffee House

Coffee porn

I have been granted a few hours with nowhere to go and nothing to do, so I decided to try a new coffee shop today.  It's one I'd driven past several times and always meant to try, since I am currently without a "regular" place to go.  The problem with living somewhere for a long time is that, eventually, you get to know too much about the local scene, and while you want to support it, you also know all the dirt, so it makes who to patronize (in the good, monetary way, not the condescending, shitty way) a bit tricky.  One coffee shop has a good atmosphere, but it costs too much and the employees are snooty.  Another one has great coffee but a so-so atmosphere, so you can't quite get into the groove of the place.  There's always Starbucks (kind of like McDonald's--no matter where you go, there is always a Starbucks), but they're not local, and so they're the exception, not the standard.  And then there's that place with great coffee (shade grown, locally roasted) and great atmosphere, but who had (at least at one point; not sure about now, I haven't been back) shady employment practices... which I would only know because I knew one of their employees.  It was the little devil on my shoulder, one of my September girls (professional barista-waitress-bar-tender-Jackie-of-all-trades).  Sigh... she ruins everything.  (and I do hope she knows I'm kidding ;)

So now we're here, at this place... and I think I might have found a new home.  The coffee is good, the atmosphere is comfortable, the music is mellow--ambient and coffee-shopish without sounding like every song was written by Jack Johnson or the Indigo Girls (absolutely no offense to either artist or duo), which means it doesn't invade my thoughts if I don't want it to.  And, the best thing, I don't know any of this business's politics.  I can only hope they're good,  honest employers to those who brew my beverage.  

Being a responsible consumer is difficult in this day and age.  Very little is cut and dried.  I want, in my Utopian daydreams, to go to a locally-owned place that has music like that which I am experiencing right now (the current song sounds a hell of a lot like Sigur Ros--they're Icelandic and if you haven't heard them before, do check them out, they're amazing--music to drown in); lots of nooks and crannies in which to sit and be alone, if that's what you want; good, comfy furniture; shade grown, organic, fair trade coffees and teas; a good behind-the-scenes business ethic (man, I don't want to hear that you stiffed your employees their fairly earned wages or that you fired someone for some reason that should get you sued, except that you know the coffee-slinging employee in question isn't gutsy enough and/or flush enough to hire an attorney to do the deed... especially not on the wages you've been paying them); and staff that doesn't treat the customers like they're not coffee-shop geek enough to be cool.  Oh, and which doesn't charge exorbitantly more than the rest of the coffee shops in town.  Is that really too much to ask?   I suppose it must be because it seems so hard to come by.  But this place will do for now.  Not enough nooks and crannies, but the rest of the atmosphere compensates for that.  And I haven't quite sussed out whether the coffee and tea are fair trade...  

Who knows?  In a few more visits, this little place might earn my absolute loyalty.  That would be nice.  I need a place to feel at home, and it's good to know where your loyalties lie.

Having Been Away

Hello, friends!  I’m here, I’m here!  So sorry about the wind blustering in behind me… I have been in such a rush!  I’m back, however, here to assure you that I haven’t died or joined the circus or taken a vow of internet silence with the local monastery.  But I have been away, in so many ways, and there is a fair bit of catching up to do.

During the first week of August, I was out of town, visiting my Northern sister, who, incidentally, is also my oldest friend.  She’s one of my September girls, if you remember my mention of them in a previous post, and we’d been planning this trip for over a year.  This is our 20th year of friendship in this life, you see, and by the gods, we were going to celebrate!

Let me tell you a little story.

Once upon a time, I was the new girl in a small town in North Dakota.  I met a girl there in my literature class, a quiet figure with a porcelain face and a baby doll dress, who sat at a desk ahead of me in the next row, and who, for no reason that I can recall, turned around one day to smile at me.  I smiled back.

There are some people that, when you meet, the moment remains etched in your mind.  You may forget some minor details.  You may forget what day of the week it was, for example, or what you were wearing, but the moment, friends… that spark of a moment remains, as accessible as if it were something that happened just minutes ago, and if you could only take a single step back, you could be there again.  That was my meeting with Sarah.  Perhaps she felt it, too, because the way she turned to me, a stranger to her then, was as if I was someone, as if we already were a we.  And, I suppose, from that point on, we were.  Yes... sometimes things happen like this in real life.  At least, they have in mine.

As you can see, we haven’t lost touch in all of this time, even though I’ve traveled far and wide, she relocated to a Much Bigger Town, and I ended up living several states removed from where we met.  This, in itself, is a testament to the strength of our bond, and something to mark as sacred.

We had a fantastic time in August, she showing me around her world, taking me to where all of her favorite things reside, and dutifully watching copious amounts of Doctor Who (Sarah had promised Gingergirl that she’d have me hooked by the time she sent me home...  Mission accomplished, by the way).

Ever since then, I’ve been back in my where, with my people and pets, and have been reveling in the work that makes a house a home.  It’s fall now, you know, and the crisp air always makes me want to start nesting.  I’ve also been writing like a woman possessed and reading or listening (on audio book) to Potters 5 & 6 between the cracks.  We’re about to start on 7, come October 1st - Deathly Hallows… and then the movie in November.  I can hardly breathe for waiting.

We  have also just passed the birthday of my Libra sister, my other September girl.  I’ll tell her story on another day.  Maybe tomorrow.  We shall see.