Found my niche
It has taken me nearly 3 years but I think I've found "my coffeehouse" - Unlimited Coffee, just down the street from my house.
In Corvallis we had Interzone, our funky artsy coffeeshop with awesome music and mismatched mugs. It's where Nathan and I studied for countless hours, Andi and I did our knitting and crochet, and where I would randomly run into everyone else. I'll never forget Gretchen's face when she saw me in there when I came back for Lavender Graduation.
I didn't find many potential coffeeshops to call my own when I moved to Phoenix and then I quit coffee so I had not purpose to be in a coffeeshop at all. And so the search was suspended.
But now I'm applying for law school and there are times when I can only do work at home and other times when no work is getting done at home. My current phase is the latter. I had such horrible writers block. So today I banished myself to Unlimited to do some work on my personal statement.
Unlimited was exactly what I needed. It's a super-casual atmosphere with reasonably good music...not that it mattered today since I immediate popped on my headphones and tuned out the world with Josh Groban. Their tea selection is awesome. Their Enchanted Forest tea is the closest thing to Tarkalian tea I think I'll ever find. They have a long rectancular table in the middle of the room and down the center of it is a huge powerstrip so we can all plug in our laptops. They're open until midnight, which will be perfect for late-night paper writing and inspired insomniatic moments. And as an extra bonus- when you use a credit card, they give you a chance to write in a tip so people like me who never carry change can still tip my baristas when my bill is only $1.50.
My only complaint is that their chairs are a little low for me. On the nights I worry about my tendonitis flaring in my wrists I could see myself asking to borrow their yellow pages or bringing my own to act as a booster seat. Yes...I'm still a geek...and loving it.