Finally Here!

After 9 hours in the car (with an hour to eat at the pier) we finally arrived at the cottage - ONE - in Avon, NC. The trip was uneventful... sponsored by coffee and various mix cds from yours truly. We always stop at this lovely place called Grandy's for fresh fruits and veggies... this year was no exception. I was shocked to discover the cottage has wireless internet readily available... so YAY for that.

It has been TOO LONG since I've been at the beach. So, I did the only logical thing possible. Started taking pictures ASAP! This is a quick picture I snapped (and jumped into) from the top deck of the house. As you can see... we are RIGHT at the ocean. The area is undeveloped (which is a BEAUTIFUL thing)... and we are on a spit of land less than 1/4 mile wide. Please excuse the silly face... I told you... lots of coffee + long, long car ride.

Let's see. What else? Oh yes... this is the main room upstairs. It is a joint living room, dining room and kitchen. The deck that I'm standing on is what the sliding doors opens out onto... The stairs lead up to this amazing little tower with two couch-benches you can sit in - great for journaling or cozing up with a book and cup of coffee. For those that I've talked to about watching storms come in over the Ocean... that's where we go. :)

Okay... time for us to start putting together dinner. We're waiting for one more family member to arrive - my cousin Beth, who I haven't seen in years! There's 8 of us now... she'll make 9. I think dinner tonight is a bunch of salads that my mother made during the week and we brought with us. Sounds good to me... there are few salads I've met that I didn't like. We'll be off for a walk along the beach later on tonight... I'm just itching to get my feet in the sand and to feel the ocean between my toes.

Nero Nostalgia

I'm doing one of my favorite things right now... sipping on something strongly caffeinated while cruising around the internet at a locally owned coffeehouse. I've kicked off my brown flip flops and am sitting cross-legged in my super-soft brown kapri sweats and fun top. Soft music playing in the background... and random people online. There is something that makes me smile through and through when I get "real emails" from people, not just spam. It's just like when you open the mailbox and there's a handwritten note (typed works too) from someone mixed in there with all the bills and obnoxious catalogs.

As I sit here surfing the net for job opportunities and writing back to various people in my life... I was struck with a random moment of nostalgia for Cafe Nero. For those that have never been to Europe, it's one of the BEST coffeehouses in the world. It also had an internet cafe attached to it and was right next to the hotel where I stayed as a sophomore Vanderbilt student during my Maymester abroad. It had the BEST coffee (italian, I believe) that you could alternate with original Orangina... a truly divine substance that redefines orange juice for the massive win.

Seriously... if I had the money to do so (or a financial backer willing to front the cost) - I would love to create a Coffeehouses of the World travel guide/book. I'd love to spend a month in various countries and give a written description of the coffeehouses there. I'd spend several days in the coffeehouses... sampling the various blends... taking notes on the people that go... the ambiance created... whether or not wine/beer is served... whether or not food is served... and how the local population reacts to the coffeehouse. I'd want to capture as many different places as possible... finding the unique places to each little area of the world. Not the S'Bucks or Dunkin' Donuts of the world... but the universal equivalents to Cafe Coco and Fido. I want to see what makes a good coffeehouse separate from the bad... I want to find out the world's opinion on the best way to take your coffee. And what the average amount of time in a coffeehouse really is.

I think it'd be awesome! Not to mention... I could LIVE off coffee for a very, very long time. And coffeehouse food... which is perfect in my world. I mean... have you TRIED the pumpkin chocolate chip muffins at Fido and Bongo Java? Or sampled the hummus platter at Cafe Coco? Think of all the syrups... all the combinations... the various teas that get mixed in. It's heaven in a mouthful.

Seriously... someone should win the lottery and front this cost. And traveling around the world? That would be AWESOME. Just me and my laptop. And my camera, of course. It could be a photo-journalism project as well. I could create a world coffeehouse book for, what else, coffee tables! I could get pictures of baristas from everywhere... signatures from random people and patrons... would keep the napkins from everywhere and do a collage-page just of that. Then you add in the chocolate that you can find... WOW. I think it'd be awesome. I'd love to do it...

... oh wait, brings me back to what I SHOULD be doing right now. Applying for jobs and finding a source of meaningful income/employment... not daydreaming about things that cost way more than I can afford. Ah well. Maybe another day. Maybe another day.