My Week in Coffee

As many of you know, I love good coffee. I'm all about the locally roasted, organic snobbery because I really think it tastes better than anything else. I've gotten to the point where I can note the subtle taste profiles in the espressos from different roasters/shops. Some are nuttier (hey oh!) while others are more acidic.

How far I've come since considering this mocha slushy with a chocolate cookie straw coffee...and this shot as a decent photo. Seriously Alex?

Anyway, I'm dubbing this past week my week in coffee. I scored some delicious craft coffee six times in eight days. I only displayed one of them on instagram, which is honestly a huge deal, because I have a visceral urge to share pretty coffee with the internet every single time I enjoy it. Hence this post.

Saturday

UC Davis had it's annual Picnic Day celebration on the 18th. Brandon and I didn't know exactly what Picnic Day entailed and I definitely thought it was an afternoon event, so we ventured downtown to our favorite coffee and tea spot: Mishka's Cafe.

Mishka's is a total study spot, but since Picnic Day is basically a holiday, there was plenty of seating. I did some blogging while Brandon caught up on some work for the literary magazine he's working on for one of his classes.

Sunday

Brandon and I were able to sleep in on Sunday and I chose to celebrate with a new coffee spot called Journey Coffee Co. on our way to church.

The coffee is great, but unfortunately the barista was less than friendly. Also I felt like a total hipster walking in to church with my independent coffee shop coffee instead of the ever popular Starbucks, but that's not really a bad thing to me.

Monday

I had the longest day at work, which is kind of ironic since I got to work an hour late thanks to some absolutely terrible traffic. It was the first time I've ever crumbled (and by that I mean cried) due to the stress of everything. But I did some confined space yoga in a closet and calmed myself down. My cousin Rachel pointed out how yogi of a thing that was for me to do, and I totally agree.

I treated myself to some solo decompression time at Mishka's that night. I wrote in my journal, I got on Pinterest, I read some blogs and listened to music. It was the perfect way to drown out the day's negativity.

Tuesday

I got coffee with Barbara at a recent Davis find, Common Grounds Coffee. I found this coffee shop on Yelp and have really enjoyed the couple of times I've been there. The coffee is incredibly well priced and well roasted. Plus this time I got an elephant!

Fun story about this night: I'd pumped gas the night before and put my debit card into my pocket, then forgotten to grab my card before leaving for work the next morning. So I show up at the counter and order my drink only to realize I still don't have my card (even though I'd swung by my apartment to change my shoes and grab a few things) and no cash. I stumble through letting the guy behind the counter know I can't pay them and before I can say "let me ask my friend if she can pay," the barista -- who looks nothing like what you'd expect from a local coffee shop -- tells me not to worry about it, that they'll still make the drink for me.

Thursday

I was particularly sleepy this morning and I figured the best cure would be some pre-work, pre-commute caffeine. I chose to give Journey coffee another try, thinking that maybe I caught them on an off day and they'd be cheerier this time around. I was wrong, this time was worse. I think the barista said hi to me. She definitely didn't smile once. From there the only times she opened her mouth were to tell me how much my coffee and scone cost and then to call out my order when it was on the bar.

Keep in mind, I was pre-caffeinated here. How in the world was I more friendly sans coffee than the girl working surrounded by caffeine?! I even went as far as to thank her for my coffee when I picked it up and she didn't respond. Not a smile, not even a nod. She just turned around.

I'm giving that place one last chance before I decide to write a review on Yelp...and I never write reviews on Yelp!

Saturday

I closed out the week in coffee with Mishka's, of course. It's sort of become my Saturday tradition with Brandon. We wake up slowly, stay in our pajamas extra long, then get dressed specifically so we can get coffee and tea at Mishka's then walk around the Arboretum. It makes for perfect Saturdays.

On a similar note, I was lucky enough to get an espresso machine that was being replaced by a Nespresso at work! Now I can actually brew espresso and steam milk in my own home. I'm simultaneously excited and intimidated by the legitness (not a word, I know) of this thing!

Stay caffeinated, amigos.
♥ A

Miserable, Magical Monday

Hi friends! Barbara visited me this weekend (magical), but she's now back in San Diego (miserable). The AC in my apartment was malfunctioning (miserable) but it only took 5 minutes to fix last Thursday (magical)!!

Also...just because...

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1. I mentioned last week that I'd been sifting through my Spotify music. Well, I finally finished. And I was thrilled when I turned on my shuffle at work last Wednesday. Oh man. You know those days when your Pandora or iPod is just so en pointe you feel like you're witnessing a mini miracle? That's what everyday feels like now. Music detox might be my favorite kind of detox (given the disaster that bath was). My taste really has changed a lot in the three years since I began using Spotify. But don't worry, there's always plenty of room for bad pop standards like Ke$ha and that almost-awful Owl City featuring Carly Rae Jepsen song in my music library.

2. The weather is burning up out here. We jumped from a lovely mid-70s high to mid-90s in the span of a weekend! Anyway, this jump in weather has left me totally unprepared to dress for work. First, I think I have seasonal memory loss. By that I mean I have major trouble transitioning between seasons. It works like this: when spring rolls around, I have the hardest time putting away my sweaters. Because in my brain, I've just gotten used to the winter weather. I've figured out my winter "look." I'm feeling that way now. I'd finally figured out how I wanted to wear my spring clothes and BAM! now it's summer weather. And I have nothing to wear to work. Seriously! I've been walking the fine line of business casual and I'm afraid I'll show up to the office in shorts one of these days! I just can't keep up with you, nature.

3. This brings me to a topic I haven't had to ponder in a while: office dress code. The office I work in is incredibly hard to read. The guys are easy, like always. They usually wear jeans, sometimes slacks, and a company polo or dress shirt. The women are an entirely different story. Capri twill pants seem to be a favorite, as are platform, wedge heeled flip flops and other open-toed shoes. But jeans are almost never seen on the women, except me. Frankly, if the men can wear jeans, then I can too. I also want a company polo, because that would honestly make my life easier on mornings I don't feel like a fashionista. Everything I read online assumes there's a specified code for what to wear to work...I have no such luxury. I still want to invest in some awesome blazers to up the professional look of, say, my favorite maxi dress. For the mean time, I'll just dress up a little nicer than I would on my day off (and stay away from the shorts).

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4. The busted AC in my apartment paired with the diminishing chances of spring weather returning had me looking for other ways to stay cool. Brandon, the practical one, called maintenance and had them take a look at our thermostat. Me? I hunted for cold desserts on Pinterest. I love ice cream (because I'm five), but don't have a machine to make it, so I've researched methods for old school ice cream making. Maybe you saw my pins on coffee ice cream and mango sorbet? I might take the method for mango sorbet and use my frozen blueberries instead. I'm also pretty excited about making coffee ice cream. It's a marriage of my two favorite things!

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5. I have a terrible habit of sipping my coffee too slowly. Well, it's terrible for the winter when all I need is something to warm me up/wake me up. I literally go back to the microwave an average of four times to heat up my coffee. However, the temperature hit 90-something on Wednesday and I was in no mood for hot coffee. Enter the official start of ice coffee season!

6. I mentioned Barbara came to stay with me this weekend. Side note: I always feel Jane Austen-esque when people come stay with me (by people I mean my sister and Barbara). I can't tell you why, but it feels platonically romantic. Is that even a thing? Anyway, it was an extremely chill weekend filled with three different trips to a coffee shop, one of which was Mishka's Cafe in downtown Davis. I'd been there once before when I was going through my post-grad depression. This time I had a deliciously smooth mint latte. Pretty sure that sucker was made with whole milk, too. Mmm! It was so rich and frothy and yummy. Definitely I place I'll go back to once we move. We also took a walk at Peña Adobe on Saturday. I always knew this park existed, but I'd never taken the initiative to actually go out there and see it. It's gorgeous. Of course I don't have photos of either of these activities because I was too busy talking.

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7. Brandon and I are finishing the Harry Potter movie marathon (a what?) tonight. I don't know if I'm prepared for all the the feelings I'm going to have to deal with. This is the first time I've made it a point to watch the movies in a limited amount of time. Usually I just watch whichever ABC Family is airing. It's been really, really interesting to apply all of my nerdy knowledge that I've acquired since reading the series. Also, Brandon never finished reading the books but loves discussing fantasy universes, so we've totally spent our pre-sleeping talks discussing how magic works here compared to other universes, how Voldemort's soul is probably not split into even pieces but halves of halves, what each character's special talent is, you get the picture. In short, we're so nerding out together. And I love it. Kind of like I love this.

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♥ A

Crustaceans, Coffee, a Concert in the City

That up there is my lazy attempt at alliteration and haiku.

I'm pretty sure I slipped in a mention of a Los Lonely Boys concert Brandon and I were going to in a previous post. Well, we went. And it was awesome.

Brandon and I watched a live DVD concert of the Boys (that's my nickname for them, totally not official) sometime before Christmas and Brandon made a remark about how cool it would have been to see them live. We both assumed they weren't currently touring. Then one day at work, I was clicking around my Spotify and bam! There was a notice telling me the Boys were going to be playing in SF in February. Um, it was fate. My plan to get us tickets to a Sharks game was going to fall through because we just didn't have that kind of cash at the time and I needed something. So I got him the tickets.

Sunset loooooovvve.

Flash forward like a Taylor Swift song and we find ourselves in February, four days before Brandon's birthday. I skipped my lunch hour so we could beat some of the traffic into the City. Now, most if not all of you know Brandon. And you know he's incredibly laid back. Like, so laid back that all he wanted to do for his birthday was have his friends come over and play video games all night. I was not going to participate in the "junior high boys' night" as he called it, so I insisted that we grab an extravagant dinner at the Fish Market on the Pier. It's pretty touristy. One, it 's on Pier 39. That's really all it needs to be considered touristy haha. Anyway, we ordered a shrimp appetizer (we never order apps) and delicious lemonade and tea and just ate so much seafood. We even got a bread bowl of clam chowder on the house because our server accidentally prepped an extra one. Who knows if he was just buttering us up or if that was the truth. Either way, we gorged ourselves. We ate so much we were too full to go to our mini donut go-to spot, Trish's.

Off we set to the other side of the city to get to the Independent. We got there without much of a problem but could not find parking to save our lives. Go figure that all the side streets would be packed full of early-comers. Anyway, we eventually found the easiest most perfect parking spot...about a 10 minute walk away. Brandon's tea was ready to burst through him by the time we got to my current favorite latte experience ever: The Mill. An old friend friend posted a foursquare thing on Pinterest a while ago and the place intrigued me. I convinced Brandon to find the place with me on our trip to SF after Christmas. Brandon practically ran to the bathroom once we crossed the entrance's threshold. I quickly went to order a drink to avoid the dirty looks from the hipster baristas. Too bad they didn't see me for a good 30 seconds. I just watched them wash dishes and murmur about the strange man who just shot to the back without even ordering anything. They were definitely judgy. I would have made an actual judgmental face at them and walked out had the coffee not been calling out my name. So I smiled a fake smile and ordered my yummy latte. And I forgave their judgment on my husband because the coffee was so good. And homegirl could pour her milk. That sounds way dirtier than it should.

It was finally time for the show!! The Boys were so down to earth and so chill and so talented. They can really jam. I sound like such a poser saying that, but it's true. These dudes love each other, their music and their fans and it showed. The other cool thing was the fact that literally all ages and demographics were represented in the audience. I'd be the person to notice that kind of thing, but it was cool to see girls I would scowl at in my brain rocking out to the same music I was. Plus, the Independent is s relatively small venue and everything was standing room only so we got pretty close to the stage. It was pretty legit.

Yeah...super proud of iPhone for this shot.

Blurry selfies.

Can we all just appreciate the fact that they're playing the bass and guitar parts on the SAME GUITAR?!

Until next time, Boys.

♥ A