The Armoury

I pushed open the door and stepped inside. A chill breeze blew in as the door swung shut behind me. A slim amount of light slid through the few windows, glinting on metal. I stared around, wide-eyed, trying to hide the grin spreading all over my face. Blades covered every possible space. Claymores hung nobly on the walls, cutlasses shouldered one another aside in barrels, broadswords silently demanded respect. Knives, daggers, and sgian dubhs jockeyed for position on every shelf. The low ceiling and the vast amount of sharp objects made the room seem smaller than it was. I kept my hands tight in my pockets and felt as if I should duck. Tartans and furs hung here and there, seemingly the only source of warmth in this cave of weaponry. I walked slowly to absorb everything. There was a dark man in one corner, polishing a rapier. He was dressed all in black, from his shirt with gathered sleeves to his trousers and knee-high boots. I knew he was watching me. I stopped to look at a sgian dubh, still keeping an eye on the man. He turned to place the rapier in a stand and I noticed his ponytail.  Studying the knife - short blade, handle crafted from a deer's antler - I smiled to myself and knew I would have a story to tell.

Coffee for Hannah

Hannah just shouted at me to write her something.  So because she's my cousin and I love her...
*

I really have no idea how this happened.
Because I don't drink coffee.
I have had it, yes, when I'm with friends and we're at a coffee shop.  But I don't make a point of drinking it.

 --

The first time I ever purposefully ordered coffee was in Edinburgh.  Betsy and Hannah and Auntie M and I had just finished the tramp down from the castle and were cold and hungry, so we ducked into a pub and sat down.  We requested sticky toffee pudding (because if you go to Scotland and don't try sticky toffee pudding, you are an unintelligent being, probably more ape than human) and because I was in a new country and feeling moderately brave, I ordered a mocha.  It was delivered in a tall (blue?) mug, with a saucer catching the ambitious drops that wanted to be drips.  We ate the (phenomenal) sticky toffee pudding and I drank about half of the mocha.  All I seem to remember about it was the chocolate being extremely rich.  And it was from a pub in Scotland.

The second coffee based drink I ordered probably doesn't even count.  We were in the van on the way back from the shoot at Powell's when Rowan decided to take us to Bipartisan.  So to Bipartisan we went.  Considering our group consisted of over a dozen photographers, there was a bit of difficulty just getting through the door.  But we crowded in and the air was cool and the wood floor was rough.  Being a newcomer in the land of coffee, I asked Justin what was good and he ordered us each a mocha milkshake.  It was sweet and intense and bitter all at once.

The third coffee was from Fourbucks (a word which here means Starbucks).  I discovered Clari was studying at the one approximately 15 minutes away from where I was staying.  Since it was January and the last time I saw her was in July, I found it absolutely necessary to crash her study party.  We sat and chatted until Rachel arrived and said something along the lines of "What are you doing here?!"  At which point, I gave her a big hug and the three of us hung out and caught up.  After an hour or so, we figured we should probably actually buy something so we wouldn't get kicked out.  Clari texted me from ten feet away while Rachel and I stood in line and I paid for a caramel macchiato.

The fourth coffee I bought was at Mission ConneXion.  (The X makes it more cool and famous.)  That event deserves an entire post to itself, but the relevant part is when Amber and I were getting hungry and didn't have any food with us.  We wandered aimlessly for awhile and then discovered we were near the coffee cart.

"I kind of want coffee.  And I barely even like coffee.  Do you want coffee?"
"Sure."

It took us a month or two to decide, but eventually we quit messing around - she had a white chocolate and raspberry mocha and I had an Irish cream (flavored syrup) latte.  We discovered an unoccupied cubbyhole between the bookshelves, so we claimed it and read awkward titles of books and laughed and drank our coffee and talked about random things.

 The fifth cup of coffee was a Kicker.  Lauren and Amber and I were spending the day together, going to the bank, looking at the saddles at Coastal, eating sandwiches, and generally having randomly awesome adventures.  We dropped off the cookies, and after we went to the library, it was decided that I needed to experience Dutch Bros.  The only hard part was finding our way to the right one.  We did get there, though.  Once again, I relied on guidance of others to choose my beverage.  Once again, I had good advice.  I think I like Irish cream (flavored syrup).


--

And now here I sit, crunching salted almonds, typing away and sipping coffee sweetened with vanilla sugar.  No cream, no chocolate, no milk.  Granted, the coffee/sugar ratio is probably around 3/1.  But I voluntarily poured it for myself.  I chose to drink coffee when I had other options.  Weird.