Friday, February 20, 2015

Beans for the week of Feb 16

To retrace all the coffee I’ve had in the past week is actually not all that difficult to note. I’m fairly certain that I had a little less over the last weekend, which extended to Monday due to the holiday. Liz bought condensed milk, so the Café Du Monde has been one step closer to actual Vietnamese style.  You can see the difference in its general darkness and how it takes on a wonderful nearly-caramel color once the milk is added. The thickness of the milk probably contributes a bit to this.  I try not to overload on the milk, though, because I want the chicory taste to be enhanced and not drowned. 

It’s been a quicker week in my existential office space. I’ve kept up with the same pace of Awake Tea upon my arrival and having my two 20 oz. Pikes.  I did break from this on Wednesday, though, as I was able to finagle a Gold Coast blend from the Starbucks downstairs as part of the now discontinued recycling program at 1045 am.  My old Christmas Blend bag was exchanged under light protest by the establishment. Fact is, they should have a recycling program regardless of the “awards.”  Deceiving as it may sound, Gold Coast is a darker roast and unfortunately it was unremarkable – less because of the actual product and more because I let it cool whilst in a meeting. By the time I got back to it, it’d cooled off and I was not about to reheat it.  Shortly after, I’d been handed a writing assignment as a freelancer, which was fantastic, and my heart was racing either because of the following up of Pike or the prospect of earning more money or the fast turnaround time it needed.  I was able to set up my interviews for Thursday (yesterday) and still make a lot of progress at work, and I guess I felt the need to celebrate a little during “Modern Family” that night. Two glasses of chilled red wine later, I’d passed out in front of “Kroll Show.”  When I let my guard down, it comes down hard, I suppose.

On a side note, I cashed in on my free DD coffee Weds night after the train ride and brought home a medium Coconut which was mostly for Liz. I did have a small gulp and it’s pretty good. I suggested she have the condensed milk with it and apparently that was quite tasty.

Last night I actually finished a decent draft one of the article, with the aid of Bruce Dickinson and Café Du Monde.  I was up really late but it was worth it (even with the Monday extension) so that at least I’m cleaning it up over the weekend instead of first writing it.  It was a little long and lighter on facts but I was able to write a decent feature that came full circle.

I have been putting a packet of raw sugar in my cups these days, because I’m not eating as much junk at my desk (which would normally provide supplemental sweetness). 

Not having coffee in the mornings at home has been beneficial. I’m sure I’ll relapse at some point but I need to move a little faster and it takes time to brew, cool and drink and honestly, all it often does is make morning bathroom trips longer and wake me up for a train ride during which I’m caged and not wanting to stay awake.  If I had the bike with me it’d be a different story. Plus, the coldness of this Winter is enough to keep anyone’s nervous systems up and running. 

Our express to Penn just sat at Jamaica for well over 10 minutes but they refuse to open the doors to the stranded passengers on the platforms.  People are freezing out there.  Apparently there are systemwide delays and it’s exactly 9am as I write this and we’ve barely made it a couple of miles out of Jamaica.  Makes me long for Brooklyn as much as one could long for that sort of thing. 


Thank you for reading this.

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