Coffee

Beverages and Other Things…

/ Sloan / Leave a comment

I forced myself to crack a new journal today. I have been back from South East Asia for over a month now and I had yet to write anything. I’ve hardly blogged, I went from journaling twice a day to not at all. This is weird for me. I’m in a funk. A full body and mind encompassing funk. Yep. There are other clinical terms certain people chose to use, but like many parts of my life I like to use euphemisms.

            I left the house, because lord knows I can’t concentrate here. Just like in college, I do my best work elsewhere. So I bought a fountain soda and I drove to a beautiful Lake Michigan overlook. I sat in my Mother’s convertible, I left the top 40’s pop radio station on and I opened up my pink polka dot journal and I wrote. It was nothing profound but I whined and complained through words that came out of the tip of my pen. I wrote a list of things that piss me off. For the sake of balance: I wrote a list of things that I like too.

            Lists are the best way for me to just write. I can always think of one more thing to add or a new list to start. So in this funk my list of piss were pretty damn negative. I was even pissed at the sun. The SUN is on my list of things that piss me off. (It was really hot, I had sweat dripping off my elbows.) But then once I started the other list things I like flowed quickly and steadily.

There were silly things. The first three or four things on that list are beverages. (Coffee, beer, iced coffee, diet coke through a straw) I mean, really… but they were all positive. There are all things that in this moment I enjoyed. And that is how I got through today and made it a not so bad day. Baby steps people, baby steps.

 

I like the tiny straw

I like the tiny straw

 

Learning to Remember

/ Sloan / 1 Comment

Waking up early is in my blood. Struggling to put my already damp sports bra on to my already sweaty body I remind myself where I am: Cat Ba Island. Skipping down the 6 flights of stairs I curse the broken elevator. Walk to the street and pick up the pace.

 

The streets are busy with locals. Motorbikes zoom to drop off kids at school, men at work and women selling coffee, I run. Ignoring the calls for a taxi or motorbike ride I run. To the beach, to the ridge where I am alone with my islands. My islands rest and wait and absorb the shock of the waves that lap them from the great sea. I’m alone as I stretch my tired muscles, as I climb the stairs I had just descended and as I round the corner and sit with a small Vietnamese woman who tells me hot coffee is just 10,000 dong. I sip my twenty-five cent brew and remind myself again and again.

Just a CoUPle More Things…

/ Sloan / 3 Comments

Fact: Things taste better when eaten out of a mug or pint glass. Example: coffee, beer, soup, cereal, ice cream, water…etc.

 

Two things that are kinda weird to travel with: a mug and a pint glass. As I embark on my trip to Thailand I’m trying to think about what makes me feel at home. Drinking coffee, tea, eating soup or ice cream out of a mug is definitely superior to any other vessel in the kitchen cupboard.

Traveling abroad, traveling away from anything familiar can leave one more or less discombobulated, homesick and scared. Am I saying that bringing these objects to THAILAND will make me feel at home in SE Asia? Nope, but a tall glass of water, or a beer or coffee out of either of these will remind me of a time where I shared a moment and conversation with a good friend in a far away place. It will bring a bit of home when I coffee/beer skype with my friend in Colorado or Oregon or Switzerland.

I’ve decided to bring my favorite mug from one favorite coffee shops—a coffee shop that I spent many a hours at during college; writing papers, doing homework and facebooking (yeah, all the important stuff) all while sipping an Americano crafted by the talented baristas at Lemonjellos in Holland, Michigan.

I’m also bringing a pint glass. A glass that I earned by running a 50k this past summer, a race that wound through the trails of Southern Oregon on the PCT. A glass I earned by training my ass off and working hard to get my ass to the start line at 6am that day and running for a long ass time. This is my favorite glass to drink ice water out of after a long, sweaty, salty run. I can’t wait to run long and sweaty in Thailand.

Mug and Pint

 

I’m not saying I’ll be at home in Thailand but I am going to bring a little of what makes me feel it with me.