tamp that

The Octane party of the summer goes down tomorrow, and all rest quietly before the festivities. Alyssa is passed out at the moment, I imagine still tired from her flight home yesterday morning from San Francisco and getting the house ready for the shin-dig. She arrived back with a bag full of magical goodness, most of which hailing from Ritual Roasters and Little Otsu. Yes!! It looks like we're going to have a small cupping (w/ neighbors m'lissa-tat and chris-tat) tomorrow afternoon of three of the coffees she brought back from Ritual. We even sipped on some of the Columbia La Virgina yesterday, which was thoroughly enjoyed I might add.

I haven't been home to the Bay since Thanksgiving of last year. I'd only been working at Octane for two months and still learning what it meant to be "third-wave." Tony pointed me towards Ritual for a visit sometime within my family festivities. If it wasn't already tempting enough to move back after my meeting at UC Berkeley, visiting Ritual gave me more to look forward to. Maybe it was the smell of the eucalyptus at night combined with the smell of a fresh cup, but my childhood home screamed for me to come back.

I returned to Atlanta depressed and moody after that trip. What did I have to look forward to? I felt Atlanta could never be home, but maybe that was because I was scared it was becoming so. I left the west coast in '97, and now we were on the brink of '07... ten years gone by, I am no longer simply that California girl I had prided myself on for so long.


"..from the Bay to the A..."