Morning Coffee

It’s 8:00am on a Saturday morning, and I’ve been awake for about an hour.  I work around 9:45am this morning.  Saturday mornings have always been important times for me – usually I’m out early to ride my bicycle; unfortunately work obligations sometimes go against that preference.  I do try to salvage a bit of personal time anyways, which is why I’m awake now writing, instead of rising at the absolute latest moment and hurriedly trying to beat the clock on my way to the office.

So I’m sipping some coffee and reading the news outside of Whole Foods, right across from my workplace.  It’s nice here, and it’s still relatively cool outside.  There’s something about being in the city before everything and everyone wakes up that appeals to me.  When I used to live in Europe, during my travels in that part of the world, I always loved being up early while the streets were completely empty, all except for the locals like me right now.  The street cleaners would still be sweeping, the shops would just be opening up, and the new sunrise always seemed to light up the buildings in interesting ways.  Amsterdam at 6 or 7 in the morning, with a little bit of fog over the canals, was absolutely stunning.

Interesting people seem to gather at Whole Foods in the early morning.  I see a lot of older folks drinking coffee and reading the paper – a few I see nearly every morning I’m here.  I wonder if they live nearby – like walking distance, in one of the high rise condos or maybe the neighborhood west of Lamar.  This just seems like an odd location to drive to in the morning, especially for people who are obviously not on their way to work.  A lot of people also seem to migrate over from Pure Austin gym, all sweaty in their workout clothing, to continue on that ever elusive path to healthiness.  There’s a gay couple that falls into this category; they’re a mirror image of Doug and Steve Butabi from A Night at the Roxbury, and they always buy an assortment of high-protein foods.

The coffee here isn’t bad, but I still haven’t found a variety that I like.  It’s either too dark, too light, or too acidic.  Caffeine is caffeine though, and in this regard it serves it’s purpose well.