Tag Archives: coffee

IMPORTANT PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

BY bonnie

The past few weeks I’ve been exhausted. Like. EX.HAUST.ED. Like where I feel like I’m wearing a suit of weights and I cannot make it through the day without a nap. I have always had moments or days like this but never for a stretch this long. I have various other health concerns being checked out so I figured I’d have to bring this up to my doctor, too, and hope to god it’s not something deadly (mild hypochondria mayyyybe).

But then.

Earlier this week, I ran out of this super delicious iced coffee Starbucks sells in grocery stores now so I did my old standby of making an iced coffee out of a packet of Via. I felt great all day. I was so relieved to think the exhaustion might finally be clearing up. I even had the energy to run to the store to buy more iced coffee.

You know what’s coming right?

THIS STARBUCKS ICED COFFEE DOES NOT WORK. I REPEAT: THIS STARBUCKS ICED COFFEE DOES NOT WORK.

It doesn’t say it’s caffeine-free, but IT CLEARLY IS.

THIS STARBUCKS ICED COFFEE IS A DIRTY, DIRTY LIE.

I Googled but no one else online seems to be talking about this very serious problem. Of course, that could be because no one online seems to be talking about this coffee at all?

IDK WTF you did here, Starbucks, but I, for one, am personally hurt and I’ve lost some trust.

My lovely readers, spare yourself weeks worth of health-related anxiety and don’t buy this coffee even though it’s got a warm and rich, slightly nutty flavor. Sigh. What a loss.

Giveaway!, Just Life, Places We Go and Things We Do

LA Things & Meeting Rainbow

BY bonnie

When Rainbow first announced she was going to be in Los Angeles I decided the kids and I would make a day of it and do LA Things before the book signing. We’ve seen the tar pits and the observatory and Hollywood Things before and we will again someday, but this time we decided to go check out Angels Flight, a historic train that carries you uphill for only fifty cents. I’d never even heard of it before seeing this video a couple of months ago, and neither had Annika despite being in that general area on a regular basis. So we met up with her and a couple other friends and a whole mess of kids and we rode the train. And the kids were all GOAL ACCOMPLISHED LET’S RIDE AGAIN. And I was kinda like, HELL YEAH LET’S, but I was mostly like I’M UNPREPARED FOR LIFE IN GENERAL BUT ALSO FOR THIS THING AND I HAVE ZERO CASH SO MY ABILITY TO RIDE THIS IS BASED ENTIRELY ON WHETHER MY FRIENDS HAVE AN EXTRA $1.50 FOR MY FAMILY’S FARE. (I wonder if it’s weird to paypal someone $1.50 to pay them back?)

So, in between the train ride up and then back down we stopped at this big trashy sculpture and took a group shot. Like you do.

The train is mostly indoor seating, but does have one short bench at the top that is outdoors. On the ride up I rode outside there, but the seat was taken so I was standing up. It was… alarming. The ride inside felt like any train ride, but outside – perhaps because I was standing – I felt every little jerk or jostle and the part of the track where the trains pass each other was unnerving to say the least. But, you know me. That’s my kind of thrill. Riding up a totally safe commuter train is basically my version of Six Flags. That’s just how I roll.

Directly across from the bottom train stop is Grand Central Market. I assume this is similar to Pike Place Market (although I’m guessing Grand Central is smaller?) but we don’t have something like that here. Yet. We’re working on it, but so far the Public Market is just open once a week for farmer’s markets with the hopes that it will become a full time place in the future.

Once we were done with our picnic dinner, it was Coffee Time (cause did I mention I was working on 5 hours of sleep? And I had to keep everyone alive for just about that same amount of driving). Right there in the market was G&B Coffee which made me my very first fancy latte. I don’t even know a place here in town that makes foam pretty like this so I was ridiculously excited, but the best part is that it was made with almond milk. And you know what? It was freshly-made almond milk. I can’t do (cow) dairy, and I don’t like to do soy so I get overexcited when a coffee place does almond milk in general, but this was so creamy and light-tasting that I might just drive up there again just for that. I am not even kidding.

It’s out of focus, but damn she’s adorable.

And then we headed over to Book Soup for Rainbow’s book signing. It was so much fun. I’ve known Rainbow online for a couple of years now, but this was the first time I met her in person. We didn’t get much chance to hang out that night because things were very busy but during the reading and Q&A portion of the night she was so much like the Rainbow I know. You know. At a microphone in front of a crowd of people? Well. That is, actually, a little bit like what the internet is like, isn’t it? We’re all in front of our own microphones and crowds there listening to us? So maybe this was my most accurate online-friend meeting ever. She’s going to be in San Diego tomorrow (that’s Friday, right?) so if you have the chance, I highly recommend coming to see her. And don’t forget to enter my giveaway to win her book!

We all wore matching t-shirts because we are cool or dorks or something.

Just Life, Lady Links, This is a Woman

What today has been like so far.

BY bonnie

So my day has been like this:

1. Wake up to an email from the BBC about doing a story. What? That’s normal.
2. Make coffee to try to become human for aforementioned interview.
3. Do interview.
4. Think coffee is empty and go to check cup but instead spill coffee all over everything. Also: waste coffee.
5. Cry. I am so tired. This week has been so busy and I have so much to accomplish in the next hour and I didn’t have all the caffeine. Cry.
6. Get a call from a local news station still in SOAM mode but it wasn’t about SOAM at all. WON TICKETS TO COMIC CON INSTEAD.
7. Did I mention I started my period? Cause this is all just kind of a lot to handle.

This is what my day has not been like:

1. Having the week’s Lady Links already prepared and ready to go.
2. Sitting down and having time to write up this week’s Lady Links.
3. Finishing a whole cup of coffee before noon.
4. Making a pretty little picture to post with this story so that I can be, or at least look like, a Responsible Blogger.

Well. You know my motto: Thank god I’m cute.

Local, Random

My New Favorite Picnic Spot

BY bonnie

Lovely, isn’t it? It’s right in town, but full of nature. It’s on a hill with views in every direction – Spanish style buildings peeking through trees on hillsides, a glimpse of downtown, the bay sparkling beyond the airport, underbellies of planes as they roar threateningly above you on the way down the unusually steep hill to land at the airport. What? That’s not lovely to you? Perhaps it’s not idyllic, but it’s kind of awesome in a Wayne’s World sort of way. Or if you like to pretend you’re Jack Shephard dying in a bamboo field.

That’s a little one.

I sat there with a friend yesterday talking for hours about life and humans we know and drinking Hawaiian Mochas* and judging airlines for how clean the bottoms of their planes are, and we learned some things about this park.

1. Aliens landed there. We heard them. It was a very 1950’s-Martian type alien noise so I’m thinking flying saucers.
2. Something (possibly the Predator or maybe well-camoflauged velociraptors) was jumping around from tree to tree, clearly planning to kill us.
3. A few times the sky literally ripped in half right above our heads. It’s hard to see such a thing because sky just looks like sky, even when it’s ripped in half, but we heard it.

OR? Maybe this is just all related to the sound waves, wind, and sky-tearing that comes along behind jumbo jets. If you prefer living in a boring world where velociraptors don’t glide gracefully from tree to tree, that is.

NOTE: My daughter hasn’t even seen Lost, but I just noticed that this photo that she took and the one above it are right next to each other in my photostream. LOST IS REAL, YOU GUYS.

*Coconut, mocha, banana, and cinnamon. Yes banana. It’s DELICIOUS. Don’t judge.