Diner Coffee: Invasive

I love love love breakfast-ing with people (tomando el desayuno!!). It may be my favorite thing. Yes, I’m a morning person. There’s just something so wonderful about starting the day at a slow pace enough to relax, enjoy someone’s company, eat good food. After a shared breakfast, the day can only continue in such a magnificent style.

On President’s Day a friend and I headed to Nookie in Lincoln Park. I’m a new fan of coffee and had thus never had the diner-coffee experience. I took two sips of the sub-par tasting liquid and a waiter instantly replaced the deficit. I looked up surprised, “But I haven’t drunk anything!” My friend explained the process. You drink. They pour. But… can’t I just finish my cup?

For those of you who don’t drink black coffee, how do you do diner coffee? It would seem to get exhausting: constantly measuring cream and sugar and adding and taking away… it would spoil the morning’s slowness and goodness.

I continued desayunando (breakfast-ing in Spanish) and was extremely preoccupied by the loads of coffee being added to my mug. I couldn’t focus. For example, when I become really animated or excited, I speak with my hands. At one point, I recounted a moment of disappointment from my week, and – fittingly so – I put my face in my hands in a gesture of desperation and frustration. But I realized that – NO! – the waiter was going to put more thin brown liquid in my cup! My head shot up.

Don't take your eyes off the mug.

I decided I couldn’t desayunar with such anxiety. I resolved to finish the meal holding my mug so the waiter couldn’t catch me off guard.

Does this mean I like control? I want my coffee mug to be my coffee mug! I want to decide how much coffee is left in the mug! Diner coffee is such an invasive concept.

Winter List

My friend Sara made a winter list of fun things to do to get her through winter, and she is doing SO well completing it!! I've had my list for a few weeks and have checked things off... but I thought I'd post it. Let me know if you want in on any of it! Or if you have other great ideas...

Winter List:

* Cooking:
Samosas
Tamales
Chai
Pizza dough (*good* pizza dough)

* Lunch concert at Cultural Center
* Art Institute (free in February!)
* Museum of Contemporary Art
* LUMA (Free Tuesdays!)
* Tuesday night bluegrass at Red Line Tap
* Buy tea from Coffee & Tea Exchange
* Snow walk through Grant Park
* Bike in each month at least once
* Listen to live flamenco music
* See an independent film at Landmark & Music Box
* Chicago Symphony Orchestra
* Weekend getaway
* See Rue Royale live - March 20 @ The Hideout

January: things I think are just great

Things I think are just great:

** Year in Review: found here:

A great way to make fun, creative, unique, practical goals for the coming year. From my experience, best when done with a good friend.


** Thai Massage

Last Sunday I attended a free Thai Massage event to kick off the career of a new masseuse. Thai massage is a unique form of massage that employs various Buddhist meditation and yoga principles. The masseuse uses different stretching techniques on the client to release tension and bring a sense of mental and physical peace. As a viewer, this form of massage is graceful and beautiful as the masseuse uses his/her whole body to release tension in the client. I was lucky enough to receive a massage from one of Chicago’s finest masseuses, and I would highly, highly recommend this form of massage if you’d like to treat yourself. Edgewater’s Yoga Now now hosts Blake , who is also a well-respected masseuse.


** NPR Song-a-Day

I am slowly becoming a radio addict. Now, on top of desiring a land line and a New York times delivered each morning to my door, I want to listen to the radio constantly. I found myself sitting drinking tea next to the radio over my Christmas vacation. Furthermore, I was introduced to excellent music through Song-a-Day – check it out!!

Reflections from So. Ill.

I just watched The Last King of Scotland. Great movie. Awful idea to watch it before sleeping. Because then sleep doesn't happen and one finds oneself... blogging. About beauty. Because beauty is needed after such a lesson in history.

The film is about Amin, the self-imposed president of Uganda from 1971-1979. He is responsible for an estimated 300,000 deaths. Classic dictatorship/terror storyline -- thousands being killed, yet the United Nations accepted Uganda to the UN Commission on Human Rights. (Shoot, is that my cynicism escaping?)

Anyway, back to reflections. For Christmas I received a compilation of poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke. A classic, I know, but I was only somewhat introduced previously. I tend to muse over a poem for a few days before being able to move on to another. There's a line from Lament that is melting in my mouth like a... jolly rancher? (I never eat those! Why does that come first to mind???)... like a... piece of dark chocolate. (Mm. Better.)

"I would like to step out of my heart

and go walking beneath the enormous sky."

I've been in Southern Illinois for the past week, and have spent time with some gems.

"Irreligious and devoted": Roger. A dear friend, mentor, coach, author. I have never met someone who dreams as big as Roger. He inspires me to fill space with dreams that are too unrealistic to plan. He urges me to run straight down my lane of hurdles, with my eyes only on the finish line. Roger loves people practically with no expectations or motives. He is the most competitive, driven, devoted man I've met. He used to wrestle. If I were a wrestler, I would *never* dare to face him.

"It's your heart palpitation.": G.M. A friend whose presence does the same for me as does a walk in the crisp, cold night air. The complexity of life clears, calms and life regains its beauty. G. is a poet, and seems to make my words sound better. For example, I told him of my dancing. He saw my eyes light up and sat back, smiling. "It seems like it's one of your heart palpitations," he observed. Dale. I'll take that. I'm ready to submerge myself in life once again.

"Hello, my dear!": Mentor, close friend, sister, mother, counselor. A woman who's known me since age 14, who buys my Christmas gifts months in advance (a beautiful wooden tea chest), and who knows the perfect moment, amidst my tears, to make me laugh. Her inventiveness, endless list of ideas, desire to learn, and loyalty make life sparkle. I feel grounded, soothed, and mentally stimulated in her presence. I realized my cheeks hurt from smiling.

Final thoughts about life in a small[er] town: garden gloves are what litter the side of the road, I heard the flapping of twenty blackbirds leave a bare tree as I hiked past, I *did* go walking beneath the enormous pearl-like sky, the owner of my favorite night-spot stayed late until G.M. and I finished our conversation, a store owner flipped his sign back to "open" when I peeked in his window, I paused in my run to listen to geese pass through my part of the sky.

Here's to beauty, magical people, 65 degree days in December, and Rilke's Palm.

Shout out for great organization: Arcus Foundation

I would like to give my support and cheers to the Arcus Foudation.

"The mission of the Arcus Foundation is to achieve social justice that is inclusive of sexual orientation, gender identity and race, and to ensure conservation and respect of the great apes."


Enough said.

Hearing

What I've been excited about and listening to lately:


3. Kings of Leon: Only By The Night
Rocker'esk. Energetic. Catchy. I can't wait to put them on my iPod and go for a hard run.

2. The ReMINDers: ReCollect
Hip hop couple currently residing in CO. He sounds like JayZ, her voice blows my mind. They're politically conscious, hopeful and inspiring. I saw them last week at Community Cafe, hosted by IMAN. (You should check out the next Cafe. It was excellent.)

1. The Silent Years
I don't have their album yet, but I've been sampling. They're opening for Longwave at the Double Door on Dec. 17. I'm stoked to go. They have such different sounds -- folk, acoustic, rock... they go loud and energetic and soft and pensive. LOVE THEM.

Enjoy!!!