bring on the sun

via flightsofwhimsy

it has been so rainy here lately but yesterday and today are reminding me that yes the sun exists. it has been gorgeous weather. i am so grateful.

sol food

via andrew moore

sol food is one of my favorite places to eat in marin.

its fun, open late and delicious. it was my first exposure to

puerto rican food.

their spicy dressing is the perfect temperature and tastes great on all the items. their mango tea and limeade is also the brilliant anecdote to the spice.

it is very unique and i have had many good experiences there.

one not so good, when we made a late night run last year for fried plantains, i thought my car died and would not start only to discover it was in neutral, oops. fortunately the people i called hadn't left yet but it was exciting none the less as all late night adventures should be.

{and people wonder why i gave my car away, i'm hopeless}

last week i introduced jacob to the wonders.

it was a

warm spring day,

festively crowded

and a perfect meal.

i only wish it was closer

cheap

when it comes to coffee i hate spending money on it i don't know why because its something that is greatly affected by how much you pay.

yet i think i hate the realization of how fast it goes.

i also usually get it for free from friends and connections and get spoiled.

i can't maintain this attitude though.

this is unacceptable when my whole paper is about quality coffee and spending more for the best. i can't tell people to spend more when i won't spend money on it. i feel this will change when i actually make money but its true that attitudes i have now will become habits.

i need to prioritize and spend money on what i value.

money is what speaks and so i need to speak louder.

sanity week

i'm refusing to call this past week of not really writing my thesis a waste.

i am in fact calling it sanity week.

not least of all because of

having jacob here

but we also

tackled many important tasks such as:

making friends for when jacob moves here

getting our marriage license

registering

laughing alot

paper editing

introducing jacob to coffee cupping

and much more

its back to the books but i think i can finish now and that alone was well worth the week

j&c

i'll be back to posting tomorrow...

tv

so i don't have a tv here in my studio.

i've really appreciated not having the temptation to waste my time in that way, i do a good enough job by myself thank you.

yet this show is changing all that.

its about the primary buyer for Anthropologie and it follows him around, with the shows host Anthony Bourdain, only my favorite travel tv show guy ever, i really thought about interviewing to be his assistant after college, he's so cool,

as they find the awesome things that fill Anthropologie's shelves. so now i want a tv and i want the sundance channel.

anticipation and distraction tools

he's coming today!!!

yay, i'm so excited to just hang out

and check off our check list and cook and be together.

distraction tool #1: i made a delectable salad last night with avocado and cucumber and i've heard that if you put a fried egg on top it is good protein and it serves as the dressing.

it totally worked,

it was delectable.

#2: i read a tip about fried eggs on food 52. its an awesome blog about home cooked food and a resource for recipes.

you send in your favorite recipes.

if it wins for the week its going into a cookbook they're compiling.

#3: rosemary shortbread i made from that website, that i found at forme-foryou

yum,

i can't say she didn't warn me,

i think i am addicted.

so i can't say they're really working but these have been fun adventures. only 4 more hours.

Mom

Happy Birthday!

You have been so intrinsic to my life in so many ways.

Thank you for your sense of adventure and fun while also showing me how to make a home and care for people.

Your ability to peg my style is amazing and i still wear the clothes you bought me in college, in fact they're my favorites.

I'll always have your voice in my head and i am truly grateful for it.

i love you.

food

during my life food has always had many meanings. its always been provided for me and i've always been told what was healthy and not. while my choices have not always reflected that, i always have a running mantra about protein and blood sugar levels and how much sugar have you had today......oh moms.

i've not been forced to cook though. i've always been a good stirrer. but that's about the extent of my talent.

at home and in college i've always had choices. i've worked in food service jobs that provided me food. such as free chick fil a and scones. not to mention the cafeteria. i worked in a coffee shop on campus. it was perfect, pretty much. followed by the urban standard in birmingham which was the epitome of delicious food and desserts.

in fact i worked in coffee shops up until a couple of months ago. even now i occasionally eat dinner with the family upstairs but that is much less than i am accustomed to. in shorter words i am learning to feed myself.

this is a feat bigger than i expected. especially without a car, you'd be surprised by how much food two arms can carry but it doesn't last too long. i am also close to a trader joe's, the epitome of grocery stores really, but it still takes a bit to get there so the whole trek can take around two hours.

{the bus with groceries is very interesting but the transit system is a blog for another time. }

everything else around here is pretty expensive.

i also have high aspirations of cooking delectable meals such as those presented by smitten kitchen and my first love nigella*, involving many ingredients and spices while being witty and beautiful to boot.

yet i have not been surprised that frozen pizza and chinese dumplings have always made the list.

{don't worry jacob i have a very extensive list for your visit.i'm going today}

but i am determined to continue my initial cooking push from last semester.

{i still think about that tomato sauce and fresh bread i made}

there is just something so romantic yet important about producing sustenance for oneself. especially when it tastes good.

new summer resolution.

domestic goddess here i come.

*p.s. if anyone wants to pick up how to be a domestic goddess for a wedding present i've been thinking about that book for a while. she is just perfect.

invitations

my dad has been working very hard on the invitations.

i am so excited to send them out.

we are printing out address labels so i just really hope i put everyone's in correctly.

they are very different and i hope they turn out well.

its already pretty late in the game,

whoops

but i think it will be well worth it.

~

class starts today, because of other things,

{like the invitation issue above}

i have not really focused on it and i regret that because it really could be a beneficial class,

so i'm going to buck up and have a good attitude.

therefore i am not going to be distracted by the blogging world this weekend, no new posts for me.

you can hold me to this....

i hope your weekend is lovely!

delarosa

another birthday this week, yay for birthdays!

so we went to chestnut street to celebrate.

i've already discussed delarosa once before and jacob and i went there when he visited in february.

it is delicious.

they have an awesome drink selection and their pizza is yummy but with a different twist.

{i also highly suggest the eggplant appetizer.}

the only problem is that everyone else knows this as well apparently.

it was very loud and we felt we were privy to an interesting first, and probably last date.

i'm thinking it would be perfect for lunch though.

and i definitely enjoyed getting to celebrate

our sweet april.

cheeseburger

i have craved one all week to no avail. the opportunity for in n out, my favorite, did not arise and i continued to imagine the meaty, greasy, goodness topped with all my favorite fixins especially grilled onions. these kind of cravings do not happen often but when they do its bad. i googled best burger in san francisco and relived my favorite burgers of all time like the broken record, who puts chopped up bacon in the patty and growing up on jon's hamburgers in fort worth, with tons of their special seasoning on the fries. it was bad. finally on sunday danielle and i stopped over at it's tops burgers.

oh my goodness. its been there since 1933 and it truly lives up to its name. the burger hit the spot along with their fresh cut fries. it was lovely to catch up with danielle as well. so despite the rain it was a beautiful day.

clouds

so i was sitting in my apartment last week, attempting to work, pressure motivation severely lacking, when i got a phone call and ran outside. the clouds were beautiful and it made my day.

here they are....

what a sweet friend.

100

i now have one hundred posts!!! thanks everyone who encouraged me to write, i have so enjoyed sharing with you and seeing what you have to say. this is such an interesting form of expression and i have

loved

every minute.

christina drinks coffee in the city

this should be the new name of my blog it would seem.

while i search for the perfect amount of pressure motivation i can often be found at the many local coffee shops in the area,

as i'm sure you've noticed from past posts.

most recently i returned to an old favorite and one i've been wanting to try.

Friday found me at cibo with april. they are in sausalito, directly across from a not so great coffee shop i used to work in, drama. but they have more than replaced the former. its in a refurbished brick building and they sell blue bottle coffee.

we enjoyed cappuccinos outside and discussed the future and our capstone progress.

this morning i was walking from van ness to first baptist and i passed by the mercury cafe. they began last year and i have wondered if they were any good for some time.

so today i stepped inside.

they had a list of coffees that they fresh brew for each cup, i tried the ethiopian, my usual favorite. the man behind the counter was very friendly and we discussed how often single origin coffees don't need anything else and how we enjoy it black.

they get their coffee from a roaster called de la paz.

which i've heard of but haven't looked into.

now i'll have too.

deadlines

confession:

i need pressure.

not too much pressure but enough to make me realize the seriousness of the situation.

i perform best right after doing poorly.

i need to be reminded to work hard.

this is apparent in my job in the area of bedmaking- after my boss commented i recognized that indeed stuffing in the sheet is not enough and researched hospital corners.

yet now i do it without thinking.

another example is ironing.

i did not believe i doing a good job but not until my boss mentioned that i could use improvement did i research how to iron online and watch videos.

i'm still practicing and i know i will master the art of ironing, as the boss calls it.

i strive for excellence but also know how to just get by.

in the area of my capstone it means that i do a lot of reading and then think about what i'm going to write for some period of time,

weeks maybe.....

and then write just before the deadline or atleast before i have to talk to the professors.

i worry this means that i am undisciplined and not self motivated.

if i get the work done does that count?

any opinions or tips?

how do yall work best?

i love the nightlife

for my friends birthday we went to the california academy of sciences night life.

they keep the museum open until ten, bring in a dj, food and drinks and give you half price.
its a blast.

i had been once before with jacob and so in discussing the different options they were surprised i had not been to the planetarium or the rainforest.

leanne piped up with, she was with her fiancee......haha.

very true. that was enough.

but this time around it was nice to walk through the humid rainforest amid frogs and birds, and supposedly butterflies

{apparently though they have a 2 week life span

and we came at the end of their shipment term,

do they have things like that posted somewhere?
I want to go back when they just arrive}

the planetarium was very interesting as they showed us some gadgets, such as the world's largest telescope or something and a digital tour of the universe but i was expecting the more typical video tour of the stars.....or how the earth was formed.....

but whatever it was included.

The aquarium always wins out for me though, i loved the anemones

and the bright beauty of the jellyfish.

their movements are mesmerizing.

i'll be back. there is always more to see.

fair trade

last week i went to a cupping, coffee tasting, at Four Barrel on valencia. i always feel a little intimidated but that's the world i want to work in so i put on my professional, too cool for school look, its excellent i assure you and i sidle up to the table.

the cupper has begun explaining the flavors already from the ground beans and she's not the usual cupper i am used to but she seems nice. its me, another couple and then about five minutes later a new guy joins us. he is trying to be very friendly and doesn't seem to know what's going on, so of course we talk. he asks about the flavors and has an interesting, as in very quiet slurping technique. he hasn't done this before and he asks if i'm in the coffee industry. so of course i give him my whole speal about my paper and coffee and the woes of the coffee farmer. he then asks what i think about fair trade. i say well hmmm not a big fan.

why not?

i explain that they only work with coops leaving out the smallest farmer and he dismisses me and starts talking ending with oh and i work in the coffee department of TransFair, the big Fair Trade NGO in oakland. oh wow, well great, glad i could talk your ear off. i know nothing, sorry....... he was still friendly and genuinely wants to know why the smaller specialty coffee companies aren't buying Fair Trade. he had the day off for ceasar chavez's b-day.

maybe he listened to my small farmer talk. that's the key but who knows. we exchanged emails so i'm hoping to get some input on the paper.

lucky coincidence, thank you ceasar chavez

volkswagen

via melissa chandon

jacob has been working very hard on his volkswagen.

its going to be ours,

volksy.

we are going to travel in it and maybe leave the ceremony in it and be totally rad hippies in it.

its funny because in high school, he wouldn't let me sit in it because he was afraid i would get dirty.

haha, how far we've come.

dress

i went to my first fitting yesterday. the dress was lovely, she put a veil on me, my friends were very supportive.

i just feel out of place.

how strange.

that this is the dress that i have thought about so long and that i'll wear to start a new life with a man i love.

at every important moment in my life the experience has been very hard to absorb because all the ideas and perceptions and thoughts i had about it overshadow the moment and its so surreal that i can't absorb anything.

i want it to be fresh and new and i want to feel it like it is, not my expectations of how it should be.

most importantly

i don't want to wake up in june and be like what the heck just went down?

bittersweet

last month a friend of a friend told us about a chocolate shop where she got a good study vibe. i was reticent. a chocolate shop? but its on fillmore and i pass it on the bus and it has good hours and wifi. three points for it. the need for a study vibe came today and so april, bekah and i traversed to bittersweet.

she was right. two floors of tables, outlets, mellow music and to die for chocolate and coffee drinks. i'm sold.

village market

while in the inner richmond this morning,

after staying over with a friend,

i returned to the village market.

i found it last december and loved that they offered

blue bottle coffee.

i was able to stay at their large wooden table in the front and enjoy a coffee and croissant today.

the sun has come out and the mixture of people mingling has been very refreshing. they offer organic produce, interesting products and a coffee bar. as well as free wifi.

brilliant.

audrey

I need to see this movie, audrey tatou is perfect in amelie yet seems to capture coco chanel brilliantly. how could i have not heard of it before? the things you learn when you're sick.

typewriter

i had a fever today and i was not at home. i was very sad.

but nothing makes me feel better than a note from jacob. especially when its typewritten on our typewriter.

perfect timing.

we're going to use it at our wedding for the guestbook.

we'll to have to have someone man it though because its a bit confusing. love it.

happy weekend!

school

I have been in school for the past 19 years of my life.

19 years.

before that i sucked my thumb and rode around with my dad to properties.

really its 20 if you count preschool.

i've always excelled.

{except at math, of which we don't speak}

love reading.

good at relationships with professors and peers. i know how to work the system and i know how to critically think.

getting an actual job and making my own schedule?????

that i don't know how to do.

what is that going to look like? reading books i like because i want too. working at a job because i like it, volunteering or both.

i don't know what that means as a full time occupation.

am i allowed to do what i want? surely not.

i have been given every opportunity. if i don't succeed its only because of my own laziness or failure.

that's a scary thought.

on to craig's list!