This time I'm having a lovely Saturday

Again, my girlfriend K. is still on her family vacation, so it'd be better if she were here, but all in all - not too shabby (and it's only 3:40 pm).

I woke up around 8:00 after about 90 minutes of alarms that I snoozed through.  Why did I set my alarm for 6:30 on a Saturday morning?  Well, I had an ambitious intention to go really early to the farmer's market, but having gone to bed around 1:00 am, I felt totally fine forgetting that plan and "sleeping in" instead.

Upon waking, I made a pot of coffee and then puttered around tidying my apartment for a while.  My mom was coming for a visit and I wanted to make sure everything looked nice for her!  Then I made my smoothie and sat down to read, drink my smoothie, and start on coffee #1.  Then I moved to the couch to enjoy coffee #2 and some "Dawson's Creek".  I don't know why I chose DC but it hit the spot.  Showered, tidied some more, some more DC, some more coffee... then around 11:15 my mom arrived!

My mom and I really enjoy each other's company, but I think she likes visiting best when there's some way she can be useful.  In today's case, I needed her help hanging some art that needed to be exact and level.  She did a great job with it!  After that, we headed out for some lunch at an amazing Waterloo place called Famoso - a Neapolitan pizza place.  Delicious!

Then we walked across the street to Heel Boy, a shoe store, to buy some shoes for my bestie Mon's wedding next Saturday.  We found a perfect pair!  The only shoes I tried on.  Gotta love that!

Then we walked a few stores down to Honey Bake Shop for an afternoon treat.  Before we got back to the car, we stopped at a great independent bookstore in Waterloo called Words Worth Books where my mom bought a couple books by Mary Lawson.

Then back home for a cup of tea and our sweets from Honey, followed by a great conversation, and then off my mom went, home to Toronto.

What a charming Saturday visit in Waterloo!  I'm sure the rest of the night will be just as great!

Surprise Me

Note: If you're in a Starbucks, having an extremely productive kick, and it's later in the evening, and quiet at the bar, and you don't know what you want, ask for a recommendation.  I just went up to the counter and said I wanted something cold and caffeinated, but not too "coffee-ish" (I love coffee, but I've already had way too much today).  I was speaking to the cashier, but I saw the barista perk up and get really interested in what I was saying.  He went on to ask me a bunch of questions, and then said, "I got it!"  He didn't even tell me what I was getting, but just made me something.  I love it!  It's like telling a chef to surprise you at a restaurant... you're so likely to get the best meal you've ever had.

And for the record, this cool lime refresher is totally hitting the spot.

Coffee Ritual

For some reason that I can't explain, my blog is only working in HTML mode this morning, not rich text. Oh well! I'll edit in my wild italics later. I had a lazy, drawn-out wake-up this morning, which I love having the opportunity to enjoy. Waking up, falling back asleep, checking my phone, rolling around, falling asleep again, and then finally around 9:30 I dragged myself out of bed and put on some coffee. That's when something horrifying happened! I looked into the fridge and saw NO MILK!!! Thankfully I live within short walking distance of a number of convenience stores, so I put on a jacket and went outside. What was horrifying then became lovely! Buying milk was an excuse to enjoy the crisp, sunny, coolness that is the perfect fall Saturday morning; that's what today is like. It felt incredibly fresh and rejuvenating to head outside and feel that sort of weather. Needless to say, not having milk was a blessing in disguise! I got my milk and then left the convenience store. That's when I noticed some newspaper boxes for those subway magazines Metro and 24-Hour or whatever they're called. I grabbed one of each and then had this funny, happy memory pop into my mind. I think I started drinking coffee around grade 12, when I was 17/18. In grade 12 I went to an alternative high school in Toronto; I won't go into great detail explaining what made it alternative, but let's just say it was different than your average high school. On my way to school every day that year I would grab a coffee at Tim Horton's, snag a Metro magazine, and head to school. Before I got to work on my schoolwork, I would lazily drink my coffee and do the Metro crossword (the teachers didn't care... that was part of the fun of being at an alternative school). This struck me as funny this morning, because I guess I didn't realize that my coffee & reading/crossword-doing ritual has now been going on for 7+ years... what a trip! It hasn't lost its pleasure either. That quiet part of the morning when it's just me awake in the apartment, and I have 20 or so minutes to eat breakfast, gently sip coffee, and engage in something that brings me great pleasure... It's a wonderful thing!

Soul Nourishment

I'm at work right now, but had to take a blog break because of what's nourishing my soul at this moment.

My friend R. burned me a mix CD for Christmas (a long-time tradition) with this track on it and I've been playing it non-stop in the car.  Seriously.  Like, it ends, and then I start it again. So I finally brought the CD into my office to upload it to iTunes so I can listen to it all-day any day.  Watching these gentlemen live(ish) in the video above is even better.  Oh, to have a talent like that (as my boss said after I emailed her the vid).  She's so right! 

This isn't like listening to your average song though. No. For me at least, there's something about the music that just fills me up. Throw in some hot coffee and a quiet day in the office and it's straight-up soul nourishment. 

Other things have been nourishing my soul lately... Baths. Reading before bed (What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell). Cocoa butter. Eating meals at the kitchen table (instead of in front of the TV). Hearing the words "I love you".

Cafe et moi.

I love coffee!!!

...except a lot of people love coffee, so that's not exactly impressive or anything... Plus, it's not like I'm a sommelier of coffee...

But coffee's not just a functional thing for me. I don't love coffee because I need it to wake up in the morning... though I do. And I don't love coffee because I'm addicted to it... though I am. I love coffee because of the way it makes me feel!

When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is fill up my kettle and plug it in. Then I take my coffee beans out of the fridge and pour the appropriate amount into my grinder. I grind them to coarse, not fine, and then empty them into my French Press. When the kettle starts whistling at me, I pour the hot water into the French Press, stir it, let it steep for 4 minutes, by which time my toast is ready, and then I pour a cup of coffee, sit down at my kitchen table, read my book, and enter into a safe & positive morning place. My happy place, if you will. This quiet moment in the morning, very much made possible by the warmth and caffeine of the coffee, gives me the energy both physically and spiritually to attack the day.

This sounds corny and over the top, and I didn't exactly try to avoid that tone, but I'm being serious here. It's the habitualness (apparently that's a word) of it.

The one thing I will say about coffee & me is that I really like the way I make it. I've been using a French Press for over a year now, but the grinder has only become part of the routine this week. I feel like grinding the beans myself (with a grinder, but still), and letting the coffee steep in the water vs. the water being filtered through it... it all just gets me closer to the coffee. With the grinder, I almost feel like I'm eating the beans... in a good way. Now I just need to master making Turkish coffee. That's the next step.

Anyway, I'm an enormous dork, but now you know!

Inspekt this!

I'm sitting here in my underwear doing my whole morning ritual - breakfast (Cheerios), coffee, "The O.C.", and Facebook/Twitter - and it's now time to turn on some music. What'll it be? Do we go with Regina Spektor's new album? It's mellow and beautiful, as per usual with ReSpekt. I don't know how mellow I'm feeling though. I'm thinking it's better to take your coffee with some Dim Mak - especially their latest mix tape. Oh mama, it's good.

Pretty sure the decision has been made. If I was a celebrity, I would FOR SURE be friends with the likes of Steve Aoki... and Sam Ronson. Forreal.

I'm also really into Lykke Li. She's SO hot, and her music is unreal.

Alright that's all for now - even though Spektro Gel (as my bestie calls her) is too mellow for me today, I still want you to enjoy the first video for her new album.