Pairings

By Jen | Published: August 11, 2010

Yesterday morning I made myself some coffee then sat down to breakfast. Only it didn’t work — breakfast was leftover fruit crisp (apricot, rhubarb, & pluot) and that just doesn’t go with coffee. That needs tea.

This started me thinking about how I pair things. Like when I see Dale Cooper enjoying coffee with hot cherry pie it just kind of squigs me out. Hot cherry pie, or anything fruity, requires hot tea, duh. Coffee is meant for chocolate and/or caramel desserts. Cheesecake and other vanilla type things can go either way, though I’d prefer a nice Earl Grey if I’m having creme brulee.

Similarly, I cannot abide a peanut butter and jelly sandwich cut diagonally — that’s got to be cut in half with rounded, blunt halves. And you can’t expect me to be okay with any mayonaise based sandwich cut bluntly in half, that’s got to be diagonal. PB&J or honey = half, rounded and everything else = diagonal. Right? Who is with me here?

Yes indeed, fine by me!

The wrong way




Do any strange pairings rule your life? These are the only two I can think of off the top of my head, but I’m sure there are more.

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Weekend Wonderful

By Jen | Published: August 9, 2010

Sky and I haven’t had a weekend off together, in the same town, for ages. So the last two days were magical and good.

We slept in and made breakfast and drank coffee at leisure with cats strewn about us.

We walked up and down and sideways and oceanways and greenways — all over Capitol Hill and a nice long trek around Discovery Park. We hit the market, we hit a movie. We had a cozy dinner with L & R. We watched a lot of Mad Men. It was superb.

I didn't think I wanted to wear a ring (I'm not a big jewelry person) until I remembered that I had my great grandmother's stored away - it's sweet and small and makes me smile

Earlier last week I let the wedding shit slip. It wasn’t really on purpose but once it was out there it was pretty fun to share. We kept it quiet at first because it was in the midst of dying and a funeral: we weren’t feeling very rejoice-y or happy, even if it was a good thing we’d decided upon. Trying to imagine a wedding in the middle of everyone you love being so sad was just impossible.

More recently it was just a secret thing to be happy about. Now it’s more of a Time to Get This Show on the Road sort of situation. I just need to stay away from the wedding blogs because I tried reading a few and they made my brain crack in half.

On to other topics: I’ve been experiencing a music resurge lately. I’ve been listening to new or new-again bands lately like Hot Chip, LCD Soundsystem, and Santogold. It’s nice when you hit a wave of music thirsting.

Also?
Ro
co
co!
The new Arcade Fire is knocking my fancy pants right the hell off.

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I love the YMCA!

By Jen | Published: August 3, 2010

Sometimes I thrill patrons so much I think they are going to pee their pants right then and there. Usually I do this with one of the following phrases:

“Yes, you can return your materials to any of the branches.”

“Sure, the DVD checkouts are free.”

“Storytime programs are entirely free.”

“You can have up to 50 CDs at once.”

“Yes, we have the new __________ CD.”

“Free wireless.”

We’re not used to getting things for free anymore. Some people are so excited/surprised/delighted when they hear what the library is all about that they thank me as if I personally started the whole thing. I love when that happens. It’s like Christmas has come in mid-August. The patrons are smiling, I’m smiling, people walking by are smiling and they don’t even know why. It’s all magical.

I’m writing about this because a) it’s awesome and b) I was finally on the other end of this kind of exchange today. Yesterday I signed up for the Downtown YMCA. I don’t know what took me so long — there’s racquetball, saunas, steam rooms, and a whirlpool! I used to belong to crummy Gold’s Gym and even though it was cheaper per month, they had all sorts of shady cancellation limitations and scary locker rooms and no fancy stuff.

So today I noticed on my paperwork that I could also use the (close to my apartment) Madison facility once a month as well. Or so I thought. I headed down there ready to hear that I had to pay extra or only come on special hours or some weirdness. Instead, here’s how my pee-my-pants with joy discussion w/ a YMCA staff person went today…

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Posted in Librarianisms | Tagged , | 2 Comments

The pantheon of coffee customers

By Jen | Published: August 2, 2010

On my route to work is a great little coffee place smack dab in the middle of tourist-y downtown. They make a mean Americano (and anything else you’d care to try).

Monorail makes you feel special. Like you’re in on some joke — a tiny stand that serves amazing coffee that most people walk right by on their way to somewhere else. If you stop there, you’re in the club. But there’s more levels than that. I’ve been observing, and here’s what I’ve got so far:

Entry level = you stopped and got in line
Level 1 = barista* recognizes you with a knowing smile
Level 2 = barista notes something nice about you (wallet, coat, etc.) and it makes you smile because no one really does that anymore, you know?
Level 3 = barista will ask you “the regular?” – note: this only happens once, before you move to…
Level 4 = barista will smile at you and make your drink without asking what you want
Level 5 = barista will say “Hey ____!” and you will reply with “Hello, _____!” because you’re just that tight. Some small talk ensues. I’d assume the Level 4 no-asking-drink-making is implicit.

I don’t think there’s a Level 6, but I could be wrong. I was at Level 2 for awhile, then jumped up to 4 pretty quickly. I can’t really hear too well when people say the barista’s name, but I think it starts with a “D.” I’m not sure if I wait for her to introduce herself or how one really gets to Level 5. I’m not really sure I even want to, it seems like a pretty serious morning commitment – small talk. I dig Level 4 because I don’t have to talk at all and that really suits my 8:40am mindset.

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* How has Starbucks managed to make this word seem like a semi-insult, I don’t know; couldn’t find a better word, though

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Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going

By Jen | Published: July 31, 2010

Reading in the hammock

We went on a lovely 10 day vacation – long enough to do all of the driving to and fro and still have a solid week at the cabin in Humboldt.

We’ve got another trip planned in a few weeks — Sky’s brother’s wedding down in L.A. We’ve been doing our own little stealth wedding talking and planning – not sure when, where, or even how, but at some point. You know, assuming we don’t say FUCK IT and go to the court house on a Wednesday afternoon. We’ll see.

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