Saturday, September 25, 2010

Coffee Shops

As we sit here, we are sipping on hot apple cider tea and a raspberry fruit smoothie at Homer’s Coffee House. Tonight we were in search of a coffee shop to hang out at for the evening. We like the idea of the coffee shop atmosphere as a quiet place to hang out (actually we can’t even chat with one another right now because of the volume of the live band performing here tonight- oh well) and the aroma of coffee wafting through the air. The downside is we don’t like drinking espresso, yet we considered a coffee shop to be the perfect place to begin this adventure of writing our first blog entry.

Coffee shops are a great symbol of what our blog will be about. For me (Alexandria), coffee shops represent the sophistication of city life. One of the things Julianna and I are going to do with this blog is share our views and thoughts on city living as two young professionals. That in itself is not exactly true on a few different levels. Neither of us are professional anythings. Julianna is in the process for hunting for a job while Alexandria is a student in the physical therapy program at KU Med. Beyond not being employed currently we also struggle to act our age at times. A great example is Julianna occasionally sitting at her desk spinning in her chair while blowing bubbles. This is our story as we attempt to grow and mature through our experiences living together.

One of my (Alexandria) goals while living in Kansas City is to get a taste of city life. Growing up in a small Kansas town of about 1000 people, I am trying to adjust and possibly embrace city life. Julianna, on the other hand, has lived in metro areas all of her life but is also a transplant to the Kansas City area. She often laughs at my misperceptions of city life but is always up for the adventure.

That leads us back to our evening at the coffee shop. A few months ago one of my brothers asked me if I had been spending time hanging out at Barnes and Nobles or coffee shops every day (because that’s what city people do). (Julianna’s interjection: what? I didn’t start hanging out at coffee shops until college, and that very rarely.)

So after 4 months, we are finally at a coffee shop. Of course it was an adventure just to get here (as most travel in Kansas City is). We found that the closest Starbucks location was a few miles down the road, so we headed there first. We soon realized this location was actually in a grocery store. Next we headed a few blocks away to Caribou Coffee. This was a disappointment also since it was just a drive-thru. Frustration mounting. As far as we are concerned, the best thing about coffee shops is the environment, so there is no reason for drive-thru coffee. We then trekked farther to reach Homer’s, which was luckily a real coffee shop. I was under the impression that the city is covered with coffee shops on every corner, but we had to search high and low. However, our search was rewarded with amazing drinks that happen not to be laced with espresso. I will admit that I feel very sophisticated sitting here typing on my laptop with other people chatting with friends or reading classic literature. We could get used to this.


** Some names have been changed to protect the identities of the individuals and to save them from excessive embarrassment. We also like being women of mystery.**