Curious Notions

I met up with Dave today for a short catch up. He introduced me a coffee shop started up by one of his colleagues called Bennu located on E MLK Blvd, not far off from I-35. Upon walking in, I was already a fan as I noted they’re open 24 hours. There’s not enough coffee shops open up 24 hours these days. Also, it’s the biggest coffee shop I’ve been to in a while with MANY seats, many tables, and many outlets. I could also tell instantly, that this place is a popular place. It has a very Austiny feel.

I wanted to try their green tea smoothie but their blender’s broken. The last few places I’ve tried to order a smoothie have declared their blender broken. I’m starting to think it’s me. I opted for my usual order, an iced chai latte. It’s not as good as my favorite at Sodade, and it has an odd color, but it was a’ite. There’s a credit card minimum of five dollars so I ordered a cheese danish. Yum. I need to gain back some of the weight I lost from being sick.

Often times, I want to meet up with someone to study or read and we leave our apartments at 9 with many places closing down at 11. I now have a quaint and cozy place we can steal away to and let time escape us. How exciting.

Odd Color Chai

Davey brought me some tea to take home. He always brings me little presents and treats. I like that grandfather clock.

Pretty Window

Related Blog Entries

- August 25, 2009 – Sodade
- June 2, 2009 – He cooks, He cleans
- February 28, 2008 – Oh My Darling, Clementine

After our dinner at Asti, Kim and I wanted to have coffee talk so we walked across the street from Asti to Quack’s 43rd Street Bakery. She used to come here during college to study whereas I’ve never been. I need to come during the day sometime because apparently they have the best latte foam art. I like latte foam art. Instead, we split a chocolate almond croissant and I ordered a hot chocolate. Chocolate croissants are something I love love love. They used to be my medicine for bad days at work or school.

Nothing outstanding about their hot chocolate or chocolate crossiant but they are each inherently comforting and indulgent. Soothing to my soul.

We sat outside to keep our conversations more private. Here’s a picture of the inside from our table.

I’ve mentally flagged this coffee shop in my memory as a shop I need to go back to for my next coffee date. I want latte foam art!

I was originally going to post a book review of Eleven Minutes but am still battling a cold and the review would have been a doozy to write. I will have that up tomorrow instead. I’m now going to dope myself up with newly acquired medicine, shower, and crash.

Other Hot Chocolate Mentions:
- July 13, 2009: Hugo’s fantastic mexican hot chocolate (Houston)
- April 10, 2008: Dylan’s Candy Bar (NYC)
- Feb 28, 2008: Clementine (Austin)
- Dec 2, 2007: Hands down, the best hot chocolate of my life at Chocolate Bar (Houston)

Not only is Sodade the closest coffee shop to my apartment, but it also has the best chai latte I’ve had. It’s the only thing I ever order at this coffee shop. I was frequenting coffee shops everyday last week. I’m not quite sure how you pronounce Sodade. I should ask next time I’m there.

This is one of my trips. You can see the date of this visit on my journal. Jon needed a coffee shop with internet to do some work so I suggested what was most convenient to me, hee. I actually finished Eleven Minutes on August 21, 2009. I just haven’t gotten around to writing the book review yet. It’s soon coming.

Here’s a picture of the interior and Jon and our laptops. Jon’s on his way back to NYC. No more day time play buddy for me.

I’m sitting in Clementine after having dinner at Hoover’s next door. There’s a one man band performing here and he’s crooning, “How precious each life is…” and blowing (or is gumming?) on a harmonica in between stanzas. Before Hoovers, I killed a couple of hours at Borders trying to study with Cindy. It’s difficult for me to study with some people. Especially if we’re both talkers. Now it’s difficult to read because of this one man show. He’s now screaming his song.

I’ve been somewhat of a regular now at Borders at the Domain ever since I started to study for my looming clinical research certification test. I prefer my smaller locally run coffee shops, but Borders is literally down the street from my new apartment. The barista is Vietnamese and we’ve already been pretty candid with each other. She told me the first time she told her boyfriend she loved him and I’ve told her why I’m not really confident with my Vietnamese. I found myself 2 other regulars today. One girl I’ve noticed twice before. She comes in to read Breaking Dawn, the fourth book in my first experience with a vampire series just released earlier this month. It sold 1.4 million copies the first 24 hours it was on sale. The movie of the first novel is coming out this December. Sadly, I have my own copy of Breaking Dawn and though I need not bum it off a bookstore, I haven’t had time to enjoy leisurely reading because of the test. I cannot wait to crack my own copy. The other regular is actually a couple. A white man and an Asian lady with hair down to her knees. They come here often reading and drinking coffee. I think the man recognized me today too. He gave me one of those “Hi, I know you.” smiles.

The perk of studying at independent coffee shops is that there usually is free wifi.

I’m drinking a steamer. I’ve never had a steamer before. Steamed milk with whatever flavor you want. I picked pumpkin spice. Mmmm pumpkin. For the first time in my life I’m looking forward to winter. I’m a summer girl at heart. I’m happiest in my summer skirts and summer dresses and I rather sweat than shiver. But winter offers comforts like pumpkin spice and blankets.

I have my second writing club meeting tomorrow and I still don’t have any writing to showcase. I just.. don’t know how to make shit up. Maybe I’ll work on that for a bit…

Cindy came up to visit me Friday night. I introduced her to Clementine. They had new art on the walls and an amusing paper and I had her snap a picture for me. Sexy Tales! Basically what we did all Friday night and Saturday before she left. We chatted it up at Clementine, closed the shop and then migrated to Magnolia Cafe and had the Mag Queso and home fries! The home fries there are better than Kerbey Lane. When we got home, Roomie and I forced her into watching her first FULL episode of Friends. Seriously. Her first! She tells us not to judge her.. so don’t judge. Next day, I finally introduced her to Flip Happy Crepes. Man… they’ve expanded their seating area since the last time I went. I suspect it’s due to their Bobby Flay challenge not to long ago. I like that I found when it was a little more humble. Before, all they had to do was whisper their patrons’ names for us to hear our order. Now they have a new guy who screams!
Well, they deserve the recognition.

I do have one unsexy tale to share about yesterday’s experience at Flip Happy with Cindy. As she was circling the Flip Happy lot for parking, I was holding our place in line. There was a red headed main in a blazer (it was maybe 78 degrees outside) and a beanie. He rode his bike to Flip and I not only can feel him staring at me as I wait for Cindy to join me, I can SEE him staring with my peripheral vision. He finally asks me if I’m in line (I’m obviously in line with people behind me.) I go yes. He stands behind me.. but more by me than behind me. I eventually let him in ahead of me since it was taking Cindy a bit. He tries to make small talk with me which I normally welcome. I LOVE talking to strangers but this guy.. he’s just creepy.The way he’s staring. He asks me if I’m waiting for someone. I nodded politely. He jokes and tells me if Cindy takes any longer I might not be able to eat. I chuckle curtly. I let three more people in between which I ended up not needing to do. However, in hindsight, the more distance between Creepy Guy and us the better.

I forget about him after he ordered and left. By the time Cindy and I ordered I had momentarily forgotten about him. Didn’t even mention him to Cindy. Cindy and I chose our seating to sit and chat while waiting for the Flip Happy guy to bellow out our names. I see Creepy Guy kind of a good distance away from us and again, had pretty much dismissed him in thought. UNTIL!! He spots us and then proceeds to PICK UP HIS TABLE! and move it but 2 feet away from us. HE MOVED HIS TABLE! I didn’t tell Cindy anything even though I was having a mini anxiety attack since he could hear everything we’re saying. I did my best to ignore him for a good 20 or so minutes (the crepes are really worth the wait). When he left to get his order, Cindy exclaimed “THAT GUY. He won’t stop. STARING!”

“I KNOW!!!”

We reshifted our chairs to have our backs to him kind of but he sat there and seriously and blatantly STARED at us the whole time. I so should have just turned around and asked him to stop. Ugg.. He finished his meal way before us and just sat there and it felt like he was just DRINKING us in. Yuck yuck yuck. Finally we finished our crepes and as we were departing in our respective cars, he had completely turned his body to face us as we drove off the lot. Staring. I’m so glad he didn’t have a motorized vehicle to follow us.. Because. I think he would.

Next time I will grow a pair and tell him a little something. Can’t believe that didn’t occur to me as it was happening.

This weekend, I…

• Babysat this weekend, twice.
• Watched disc 2 of the Oprah Winfrey 20th Anniversary DVDs
• Dog Sat
• Finished reading The Other Bolyen Girl.
• Walked Town Lake with Nisreen and two puppies.
• Joined an Obama Rally at Town Lake
  
  

• Went out with Brandi and Jessica.
  
  

• Sat out in the 80 degree weather at Mozart’s/Lake Austin and shared a chocolate mousse soaked cake crumbs. (DELICIOUS- the only dessert I’ve had at Mozart’s worth raving so far)
  
  
  
  

• Made the easiest recipe I’ve ever tried for Shrimp Scampi. Easy AND delicious. I think this is my new default recipe for Scampi. I got it from Barefoot Contessa.

Enough to hold me over til next weekend.

I had hot chocolate (not the best of my life like the one at Chocolate bar in Houston) at Clementine yesterday. It’s been a long time since I’ve been at this darling Austiny coffee shop but it seemed like the perfect, cheap, quirky, halfway point to meet up with my dear friend, Dave. We try to see each other once or twice a month. It was his first time and I’m always happy to introduce new places and things to my loved ones. See the link for a better feel of what Clementine is like. Last night was the first time I was there while a band was playing so I got something new out of it as well.

There he is with the book he’s currently reading. I recommend the book for those who hate to read or don’t have time to read. It’s quick, easy, short Q&A format and interesting to boot. PICK UP A BOOK AND READ, damnit.

Anyway. I’m officially very broke and swamped with medical bills. More on that later.

A few movie reviews maybe coming up as well.

The new things of the week:

I bought my first CD. Now I’m doing something with my savings. I’m slowly growing up!

Friday night, I had an informal eating contest with my BFFE (a boy, left out his name as to not really embarrass him) at a Chinese buffet called Lam Bo. We had eight plates of food each but I won because he gave up. Heh. So the terms? We had to eat exactly the same thing and if one person finished their plate first, the other had a minute and a half to finish his/her plate. He looked awfully sick after the third plate but he kept at it. I’m proud of him. It was funny following each other around the buffet asking each other:

“How about this?”

“Hey your piece is bigger than mine!”

I think we easily had eight thousand calories each. He kind of cheated though and threw up most of it on his way home that night. :( I let it sit and accumulate on my ass.

Then Saturday, Cindy introduced me to a quaint coffee shop called Agora. Where she proceeded to educate me.

Me: “I used to know what agora meant….. does it have anything to do with rabbit?”

Cindy: “No, that’s ANgora.”

We sat in front of a window and our view instructed us to “cut loose.”

So I love Agora. Minus the no parking. There’s a different candle on each table with a lighter. And… there’s a mirror in the bathroom next to the toilet. It made me laugh and amused me enough to take a picture of it.

It reminded me of one of my favorite professors from undergrad. He once said, “If you have a hard time NOT taking yourself so seriously, here’s what you do, take a mirror and put it in front of a toilet. It’s hard to take yourself seriously watching yourself on the toilet.”

THEN! Then the icing on the cake was the bookstore across the street. Domy.

I loved it. I like Cindy’s description of it. It’s Urban Outfitter’s book selection on crack.

And it is.

Domy also had a very sweet patio in the back.

We made friends with Russell, the manager. So if you ever visit tell him we sent you. I bought a book, of course. 1000 Journals Project.