Wild, Wild Latte

I just returned from getting a caramel latte. What is exciting about ordering lattes in Colorado, is that Colorado can rarely handle fancy coffee orders. Even at a coffee shop. So. Today's adventure was at a coffee cart on campus. Two baristas were working and when I ordered a caramel latte, they both said, "Whoo!" Like I was being fancy or something. That was my first clue that this was going to be an interesting order.

They huddled together trying to figure out the recipe. It seems there are recipe cards for these crazy fancy drinks. Then one of them came over to let me know that a caramel latte had espresso, milk, and caramel. I smiled and said that sounded great. I think she was warning me that this was not going to be a cup of coffee. She then tried to ring up my order while the other was still puzzling over how to put this monstrosity together. Instead of being charged for a caramel latte, I got charged for a cup of coffee with a "flavor" added.

A few more minutes pass with whispered conversation about whether or not to stir the caramel or to make it in "layers." They decided on layers and proudly gave me a big cup of what looked like a latte. The creator warned me that it hadn't been stirred (the other chirped in that it was cheaper to order it this way, since it wasn't stirred). I was assured that once the drink "settled down" that it would taste great! I appreciate the warning, because I find rowdy coffee to be a problem. They took turns wishing me luck (!) and to have a good day. And this is why I adore going to the coffee carts on campus, because it's an adventure into the wilds of latte-making.

An Erinku:
it's still
too hot
to drink
I can't wait

Avoidance and Dinosaurs

In the past while, I've had major falling-outs with three  and a half people. While two of them live together here in town, the third works around here. The half just shows up around the edges from time to time in her part of town. In the past few years, I've very carefully navigated my way through the big city, avoiding places I know these folks go and basically getting more and more anti-social since some of them are friends of friends (which is a whole different rant in itself, because who would want to be friends with such ass-hats?).

Anyway, tonight I decided that even though some of my friends have the bad taste to be friends with these folks, it's not my problem. I'm going to romp around Denver and if I do happen to run into any portion of the three and a half people, I can always pretend they are invisible. Because of my history with them, my pretending they are invisible is SO way less rude than how I've been treated by them, that it's not even funny. Or maybe it is just a wee bit funny. Or not.

I think it's a good decision, because I fully expect any or all of the three and a half people to get eaten by a T-Rex any day now. Since I was routinely asking the universe to make that happen, repeatedly, and it's only a matter of time before some T-Rex escapes from somewhere, hankering for a bit of ass-hat for dinner. I'm just saying.

I like all parts of this big city and avoiding chunks of it is silly. And so. That's what I decided tonight. Because sometimes you make decisions on a Wednesday evening. And that is all.

An Erinku (like a T-Rex without a tail and longer front arms):
cinnamon
sugar
agave
I love sopapillas!

Hi, I'm Helium!

As I was drowsy last night, it occurred to me that I'm like a helium atom. And after researching a bit more this morning, I'm modifying that to say I'm more like a helium-4 atom. Besides my usual analogy that I float through life like a three-day old helium balloon does, it occurred to me that I'm a pretty complete unit. While a lot of folks feel a need to be part of something bigger than themselves (whether that be a political party, a movement of some sort, a member of religion, and onward), in that sense, I don't so much.

I spent a lot of my growing-up nights sleeping in my backyard without a tent. There was very little light pollution and the night sky was brightly intense. And I think staring at stars for so long warped my sense of scale as well as warping my view on "belonging." Because I'm just a wee dot on part of a wee dot in a vast, vast universe, it doesn't make much sense to me to make more distinctions than that.

I have gone off before about I think a major problem with egos running rampant is that there is too much light pollution to allow for folks to do what humans have done throughout history: for about half of each day, be faced with how tiny, tiny we all really are. For a while, I was pretty passionate about light pollution, but then I found out that I'm contending with a lot of people who prefer to be inside, anyway. So it goes.

And I know this is abstract and that I'm as consistent as the next person with translating my views into real life. But I also know that the longer I go without staring at the night sky, the more wrapped up I get in things that don't really matter to me. So I'll continue to bob through life like a three-day old balloon does and I'll fit in, in my own way, in this big old universe of ours.

An Erinku:
open window
an invitation
for the lawnmower guy
to go by, again

Reflections

For the past few hours, I've been working on a school paper (ha! fooled you! You thought that since I was done with one degree that I wouldn't be taking any more classes!). The paper is a little "getting to know Erin" paper and they've asked me to talk about three good and/or bad supervisors I've had that have helped me be the worker I am today. When I reached that question, I giggled, filled up my sake cup, and started typing away.

I started working around 12 and since I was about 16, I've continuously held at least two jobs at any given time. That has given me a lot of different work adventures and a lot of different managers. I had to come up non-identifying names for folks, which just added to the fun. One was "Matt," the cocaine-addict who bought a restaurant on a whim and coerced his employees to come to his church or lose their jobs. His wife would sleep with each new chef as soon as Matt fired the previous one.  I navigated him and his crazy wife, managing to somehow get promoted to assistant manager. I blame this on his cocaine use. Adventures.

There was also "James" the owner of the liquor store. I loved working there, but eventually had to leave because it was only part-time. He was a great boss and had awesome parties...except most everyone would end up pregnant afterwards. And there was time I found a freaky big dead spider in a wine glass on the shelf. And I learned how to spot a fake ID like no body's business. And the adventures I had with my cow-orkers are typical of what you'd expect from a girl in her early 20's working in a liquor store with others like her.

And let us not forget "Sally" who ran a chocolate shop and was married to a politician. She told me in all honesty one day that she'd only had children to help her husband run for some political thing. And I thought my deliberatly having two cats at once was awfully coniving. 

All in all, I've had a boatload of bosses and all of them (and all my many, many cow-orkers) have such interesting stories and views of life, that I guess I've taken them all in a bit. It's been kind of fun to trace back through these tonight and it makes me realize how many folks I've lost touch with...since I began working way before the internet was really common, and so much earlier than Facebook was around. I hope all my old cow-orkers and bosses (good and bad) are having adventures in their own weird little ways and that I'll run into them again at some point. Who knows? The world is a small place and weird folks always seem to run into other weirdos. It also means I have a lot of interesting stories to go!

An Erinku:

I want to make curry

It weighs on me:

how bad of a cook

I am.