one week to go!

Hello all!
It's been a hectic two weeks, I worked almost 50 hours last week (thank you pregnant co-worker for the extra hours) and then got hit with a massive cold.

I have read a couple of great books while in bed the past few days:
The Circle by Dave Eggers (Keegan's literary crush) was really interesting, but I hated all the characters. The novel is about our society when social media takes over and how it affects our rights to privacy, opinion, etc. Very pop-psychology, a sort of end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it novel without the zombies. Not Egger's best work, but entertaining non the less.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman, another amazing book produced by my favorite author. I highly recommend this to everyone. The main character, Shadow, a man just released from prison, gets hired by Mr. Wednesday to be a glorified errand boy - driving him around, picking up and delivering packages, etc. Shadow comes to understand that everyone he is meeting and working for are gods (stay with me here) that were brought over by immigrants or explorers hundreds of years ago. It sounds kind of lame, but it so so interesting. They don't have magical powers, they're just ordinary men and women who used to have thousands of worshippers, trying to stay alive in a world of car-gods, and internet-gods. So fascinating. I read the 10th anniversary edition which is the extended manuscript but I am sure the regular edition is great too! Really read anything by Gaiman, he's a miracle.

The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winters was recommended to me by my lovely mother. Each chapter is a different story but the story-line repeats itself in different settings - pirates, space explorers, a woman living in NYC. The stories examine our relationships with nature, with technology, and what defines us as humans. Similar to Cloud Atlas, which I have seen the movie version of but not read yet. I also recommend this book highly!

Isn't this picture amazing?! My friend shared it online, so I am not sure where it came from, but I love it so much.

I've been working on my latte art! Here's a christmas tree I did. There's been a lot of changes at work lately. We're transitioning from being called Para Coffee to Grit Cafe (what do people think about the name? i have mixed feelings). There's also been an influx of new employees as my bosses more fully take over their three new locations: Cafe Cubano downtown, Trailside in Crozet, and a new coffee bar area in the IX building. I worked at the IX for a shift last weekend and it was a lovely space, but barely anyone came in, they need to do a lot more promoting. If anyone is interesting in checking out the new spots to just looking around at where I work, here are some links:

http://instagram.com/gritcoffee/ - the instagram for Grit, you can see some pictures they have posted

http://gritcoffee.com - here's the Grit website

http://instagram.com/paracoffee - here's the old instagram for where I work (http://instagram.com/p/u_IVllMxWZ/?modal=true   look it's me!!)

In other news: Keegan and I went to Richmond last weekend to stay with his cousin Amanda, it was very generous of her to let us sleep on her couch!

This is her cute cat Luna, or two-face as Keegan likes to call her

Amanda works at a super swanky dress shop in downtown Richmond.

It was a rainy night!

But we still made it to see the Black Keys!! Saint Vincent opened, I am not so into her music but she is pretty talented. The Black Keys is Keegan's favorite band, he was so excited about the whole experience and is still fairly giddy. 

cell phones or stars?

with his new poster!

FOOD NEWS

We ate at a two AMAZING spots in Richmond:

Garnett's Cafe (http://garnettscafe.com): An amazingly cute little cafe, with intensely delicious sandwiches. They all seemed to be french inspired! I got the Croque Garnett: Black Forest Ham, Irish cheddar, apple, and sage mayo on grilled Italian bread topped with mornay sauce - TO DIE FOR! That was our super heavy, filling, crazy delish lunch/supper.

For breakfast the next morning we went to 821 Cafe (http://www.821caferva.com) which was also super heavy and amazing and filled me up for breakfast and lunch. Keegan and I shared an order of huevos rancheros and blueberry pancakes :)))) 

Then last night, Keegan met me for supper downtown in between my two ceramics classes, and we ate at Citizen Burger (http://citizenburgerbar.com). Very cool scene, we both built our own awesome burgers with local ingredients. I do wish they had turkey burgers, but the beef was still yummy. I can't wait until Keegan is 21 so we can go there for happy hours, it is such a fun spot, very hipster with brick walls and spray painted designs and mason jars.

I did massive amounts of Christmas shopping this morning because we go home in a week from today!!! and then it is Christmas!!!!!

whoooo whooo!!

xoxo