You might remember the fact that Sean and I were searching for an old “It’s better in the Bahamas” 70s mug? No? Well, I’m too lazy to go back through my archives and find it…maybe I will later. But right now? It’s 8am and I just now got my coffee so it’ll have to wait.

In any case, Sean used to have this fabulously retro 70s mug with a silhouette of palm trees and a couple walking on the beach and it was from the infamous “Better in the Bahamas” collection. His mom accidentally threw it out a few years ago and we’ve been searching tirelessly for it ever since.

While at my parents house last Christmas, we were making coffee and found this mug:

It’s not from the Better in Bahamas collection–BUT it has a very similar 70s beach vibe and Sean and I fell in love with it right away. My parents stared at us as though we were weird–especially since they had gotten us a hand painted collection of glassware that we were thankful for, but not nearly as excited about as their old, used, stained mug. They happily gave it to us and every morning we fight over who can get to this mug first. Usually I lose since Sean wakes up at an ungodly hour daily.

But every now and then, I’ll come out of the bedroom rubbing my eyes and there waiting for me on the counter is this mug with steaming coffee and a post-it note with a heart. Ok, so I lied about the post-it note…that’s so not Sean’s style. But I like to think that there’s a figurative post-it note that we both know might as well be there.

I have the GREATEST clients ever. Not only did Kristin write me the sweetest thank you note, explaining her gratitude for capture such timeless memories, but she bought me…

{drum roll please}…..

COFFEE! And not just any coffee. Joe the Art of Coffee is some of the most delicious coffee in the city. I love this stuff and used to go there a lot when I worked in the west village.

Thank YOU, Kristin for letting me be such a special part of your memories. I hope you cherish your photos forever.

I was bleary-eyed. The rain pounded on my windows echoing the headache pounding inside my skull. Bebop pranced around my neck, licking my face. I hadn’t heard the alarm go off yet, so I knew it wasn’t even 7am. Bebop can usually make it until AT LEAST 7:30. I grabbed her little body and tried to force her to lay back down next to me. She simply wasn’t having it…with the same persistence I’ve seen as my niece tries to open a candy bar wrapper, she continued panting in my face. It was obvious…her highness would wait no longer.

I wrapped my robe taut around my body–an ugly, faded pink fuzzy thing. I really need a new robe. I put on my galoshes. My coat. My scarf. I reached down to the place where I usually keep my umbrella only to remember that I lost it weeks ago. Instead a grab a hat.

Bebop and I go for a weary walk around the block…well, for me it was a weary walk. For her, it was playtime. She bounced around, taking her time to pee on everything. My hat blew off my head. I managed to grab it and put it back on before anyone saw the disaster that was my hair.

By 6:50am I was back inside my apartment dripping wet. For the first time in her life, Bebop didn’t seem to mind the rain. Every dog owner’s….dream? Nightmare? It was still too early to formulate coherent thoughts.

Coffee. The second the thought entered my head, I could feel the adrenaline rush hitting me. Just the thought of caffeine was enough to energize me…if only for a second. With hope, I rushed to the cabinet and grabbed the bag of French Roast.

Empty. Empty. Noooo, this wasn’t possible. When did I finish my coffee? Oh, that’s right. Last night during my midnight marathon of editing. There had to be more coffee somewhere in my house. I always kept reserves of it…

Fridge - no. Cupboard - no. Cabinets - no. Linen closet - no. I was, for the first time in my life, without any coffee whatsoever. For the past few weeks, I’ve been eating random things in my house - peanut butter and jelly on tortilla wraps (because I was out of bread). Then I ran out of jelly. Then peanut butter. I’ve had no vegetables in the house. No protein. I even ran out of sugar and cream. I’ve been living on take-out and brown rice every day for the past few weeks. But none of that mattered because I had my COFFEE.

But now, even that was gone. And I officially NEEDED to go food shopping.

Which was fine, because I could grab a coffee on the way…

Are you seeing a trend here…what with the “busy” theme of my posts lately? In any case, I haven’t had a lot of time to continue exploring coffee shops around the city, but over the summer, I was commissioned to do the food photography for a diet book. Sort of an “Eat This, Not That” kind of book. And FYI, (you probably already knew this) coffee is a much better alternative than a latte. So much so that it’s kind of ridiculous. Though, latte’s are a delicious, delicious splurge.

Now, I realize the quality of this photograph isn’t quite up to par with the rest of this site, but I only had my little point and shoot camera on me.

In case you don’t recognize the decor (which I wouldn’t either if I were you), this here is the infamous Russian Tea Room where my parents and I had lunch yesterday. Faberge’ eggs in glass cases surrounding us, beautiful artwork and gold guilding on the walls above our heads. It was really fantastic. And for lunch, a goat cheese blintze, duck-truffle ravioli and a chocolate mousse “pyramid” with a espresso to finish off the lunch.  And this may have been the single most expensive meal of my life…the only price I’ll divulge is that the espresso (one shot) was $8. And it wasn’t anything spectacular.

The food was very good, but portions were dainty and the descriptions of the food made it sound a lot more interesting, tasty and complicated than they actually were. When my 3 pieces of ravioli–yes, three was all you got–were put down in front of me, I quite honestly almost laughed. Then, I leaned over to my dad and said, “I think we’re gonna need to grab a hotdog after this.” My parents laughed, but I was so not even kidding.

Prior to the horrible end to our balcony experience…this was us. Lounging around in the sun, enjoying crossword puzzles and warm weather!

Saturday morning was such a beautiful day in New York…it hit about 70 degrees in Brooklyn! So that morning, Sean and I dragged the dog’s beds onto the balcony to drink our coffee and work on crossword puzzles. And it was such a beautiful, lovely morning.

That is until…..we noticed at the funeral home (pictured above) that a body was being rolled up that ramp and into the facility. Being rolled on a hospital gurney type of thing with nothing but a sheet covering it. We could see the outline of a nose, chest, legs…it was creepy. Needless to say, my morning was ruined.

Southside Coffee was the first coffee shop I tried when I moved to my new AWESOME neighborhood. It’s good. Better than most coffee shops and certainly better than Starbucks. And They Have Cookies! Which in my book, is always a plus.

The ambiance doesn’t leave a whole lot to be desired, but it’s quiet and the people are all very lovely. In fact, this coffee shop was one of the deciding factors in choosing this neighborhood. Good coffee shop? Check. Cookies? Check. No homeless men trying to stab me on the walk home from the subway? CHECK.

Roots Cafe is my favorite place to go in our new neighborhood. The coffee is good (super dark…takes way more half & half than usual to get it to my ideal caramel color), but the sandwiches are what makes this place special. They have this turkey and goat cheese panini that is AMAZING. It’s so good…I’ll have to take a photo of it for Ello next time I’m there, since I was lectured about talking about food with no photo before.

That being said, the other reason I love it so much here is because of the vintage eclectic feel to its design. It has a ton of artwork (some really bad artwork admittedly) and antiques. It’s the perfect place to write on a cold, snowy day.

You know I’m really sick when I trade in my daily coffee intake for tea. And a couple of weeks ago…I was incapacitated, I was so sick.

I’ve mentioned before that I typically hate tea with the same passion that Palin hates a woman’s right to choose. There have been rare exceptions such as some of the loose tea brews featured at Alice’s Tea Cup. But any sort of Earl Grey tea bag kind of brand makes my stomach lurch.

BUT Sean found this Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice tea. It. Is. Delicious. It tastes like Big Red chewing gum! It was perfect for the week that my throat was swollen and I couldn’t breathe. And luckily, my coffee cravings have since returned. A sure sign that I am feeling better.

Sidebar: I fully expect to see some hate mail based on my Palin comment. I’m bracing myself…