Buy Carl a Cup of Coffee
That’s right. I’m asking if you’re up for buying me a cup of coffee as I travel.
Life on the road is just as often hard and lonely as it is wonderful and full of friends.
If you enjoy reading about my travels and want to show your support tag this PayPal link (or the cup of coffee to the right) and drop in a couple dollars.
I don’t have a regular job and yet am making my traveling work to my benefit by teaching as I go along. If you know I’m coming to your scene you can help put the word out for privates or help me organize a workshop class or two.
San Francisco, CA – The Coffee Mission, Morning Yoga, and Washboard Trains (2/2-2/3)
Monday – Coffee in the Mission and then they took my money
I began by cycling down into the Mission District. The Mission was traditionally a latin american neighborhood which has been influxed with hipsters, young professionals and students. It has a lively nightlife and artistic community being dubbed as the New Bohemia in 1995 by the San Francisco Chronicle.
I started off at Ritual Coffee Roasters. It’s on Valencia between 21st and 22nd in the Mission (there is a second elsewhere in the city and one in Napa). The atmosphere is relatively minimalistic and the coffee roasting process happens right before you. There are bags of green coffee in the back while employees pour beans into the machines to roast.
Watching the process happen and knowing that the cup of coffee you are enjoying was probably roasted the day you ordered it or the day before at most is exhilarating. There is a directness to the experience of the product, an authenticity you don’t receive even when it is freshly ground.
The staff was exceptionally friendly, and I chatted for a while with one barista who recommended a clover drip of Ethiopian origin and the Sweet Tooth single origin espresso which they were premiering from Brasil. He recommended a local yoga class that he taught on Tuesday and Thursdays a bit farther down in the Mission. I took his card and seated myself to do some work.
The only downside to Ritual, they have no outlets for their customers. So while they provide excellent coffee and free WiFi when your battery is out of energy, that’s it. You’re done. It encourages turnover but definitely discouraged me from returning to spend a lot of time there. I work in four or five hour blocks of time at cafes and being unable to plugin seriously shortens my uptime.
Once my battery had run its course I cycled over to Philz Coffee which is on the corner of 24th and Folsom, also in the Mission. They are known for the One Cup at a Time motto where each cup is prepared individually (at high end cafes this is fast becoming the norm).
I picked up a Yerba Matte Latte (one of my new beverages of choice when I’m working) and settled down. For a popular and established cafe Philz maintained a recently put together atmosphere with an assortment of tables, chairs and couches amongst various plants and adornments. The wifi was solid and power outlets available. Done and done.
Work passed by, I had a poker game to go to down in SoMa at Manu’s. I showed up a touch late (as is my habit) and somehow managed to be the first person anyways. The game was $5 in and while I normally take my parents money at poker, I didn’t even manage to make the third round. Consolation prize, hanging out on the couch and then playing Jungle Speed as more and more players were knocked out. Jungle Speed should be for money, that’d be my kind of game.
Tuesday – Yoga with Men and Redwood City
One the advice of my friendly barista at Ritual, I set out for morning yoga down on 20th St. I didn’t know what to expect, and I’m particularly choosy about my yoga instructors for a few reasons, and arrived just as people were filing into the class. It was all men (rare in my experience of yoga) and I believed I had been invited more on the assumption that I was an attractive young man than for any other reason. The class went well, being traditional Vinyasa with some balances and strength training near the end of the class.
I haven’t regularly practiced yoga since I lived in Montreal and I miss the calm I find after savasana (corpse pose). It is a centering practice that I should pursue more actively and I have this notion in the back of my mind to go to Sedona, AZ and study. Follow in footsteps.
After yoga I stopped at another cafe on Valencia for a quick coffee, journaled for a moment, then headed back to Michael’s to clean up (he was my 2nd host). With a quick turnaround at Michael’s, I headed back out to catch the Bart down to San Mateo to meet up with Carla and Rye.
One thing about San Francisco public transportation, they need a unified system. There is the Bart (Bay Area Rapid Transit) which is basically a subway system, the Muni system which is streetcars and buses, the CalTrain which is a commuter rail, and then most likely a few more in the East Bay which I didn’t have the misfortune to need. None of these systems run on the same cards or fares and it was grating to have to switch between them.
So, while waiting for the next Caltrain (that I had just missed cause I had to buy a different ticket) at the Bart station I pulled out my washboard and practiced some rhythms I had been working on.
I love playing the washboard, although I occasionally find it hard to learn new things without having other musicians to jam with. It is an instrument I can bring anywhere and has brought me a variety of social encounters I would not otherwise have had. It’s a magnet for questions and comments and sitting at the station waiting for Carla and Rye to pick me up I struck up a conversation with a girl sitting next to me. We chatted for a short time about my travels and what she did in the city.
My travels have really begun to break me out of my shell socially, I am able to start conversations with perfect strangers without that incredible discomfort I used to feel. It’s one of the bigger challenges I’ve had in my life and it’s slowly dissolving the more I travel and want to learn about all the people I meet along the way.
Once picked up, we stopped for food in Burlingame and talked for a while. It’s interesting to hear what people think about my current vagabonding, how I’m funding it, why I’m doing it, and what plans I have for the time ahead of me. My latest project Slacker Reform is one of the ways I plan to give back to the world and to help others.
We hung out at their place for a while and they have two adorable cats, one who is 20 lbs and bigger than some dogs I have met. I miss being around cats especially ones that will drape themselves on you as if you were public property.
Carla runs a weekly venue down in Redwood City and I had heard good things about it, that and I wanted to get some dancing on.
Redwood City Swing is held in a ballroom outside of downtown Redwood City. It is a large space with good acoustics and a nice floor. We put together a little jam number using the California routine to showcase for the beginner class. For the entire night I could barely sit down out a song and everyone was incredibly welcoming.
By the end of the night I was wiped. Thankfully they had an incredibly comfortable bed all ready for me. Foam mattress pads and pillows are something I will invest in if I someday decide to settle down.
Austin, TX – Highlights and Hill Billies (1/24 – 1/30)
Alright there were no hill billies in Austin, Texas – there are barely any hills for that matter.
Last Highlights
The majority of my time in Texas was occupied with one of two things: dancing or coffee.
My weekend was packed with partying, dancing and competing at Lone Star. I carried away four trophies from the event, a first in the Strictly Fast and a third in the Strictly Blues with Teni, a third in the All-Star Jack & Jill with Karen, and a second in the All-Star Strictly with Gina. One for each of the competitions I entered (go me!).
I’ve never competed in an All-Star division before. You’d think it would be stressful or daunting – not at all. Exciting, entertaining and fulfilling is more like it. Watching Mikey & Nina rock it from the start and not worrying of dancing with someone I’ve never met before made the Jack & Jill a great experience. Competing with Gina for the first time, feeling like we did well, and then winning second was very rewarding. Aside from the All-Star divisions, competing with Teni is always fun – we have a good rapport on the dance floor both goofy and intense depending.
Coffee amounts to a lot of sitting in cafés and doing work on this site, Slacker Reform and DancewithCarl.com. I spent more than 8 hours some days at my computer working on layout, SEO, content, and such things. Slacker Reform has a plan, no launch date, but a plan. DancewithCarl is basically done minus photos and photo credits.
I checked out Caffeine, Kick Butt Coffee and Genuine Joe’s in Austin successfully. They were each quite unique.
Genuine Joe’s, where I spent the majority of my time, had a home reading room feel. Chairs, tables, and couches were all hodge-podged together. Staff were welcoming and talkative (especially when you are there more than they are), the coffee was good and their lattes were named in an aptly leftist fashion.
Kick Butt Coffee is owned by a martial artists and the whole café has a distinct martial theme with rubber ninja stars at the register (watch out Andrew), weapons on the walls and a kicking cartoon logo. The coffee was quickly delivered and it feels good to support a local chain.
Caffeine was recommended by a friend of mine from Montreal. It has a co-working day on Fridays where freelancers, entrepeneurs, etc. gather to work on their respective projects in a creative communal environment. The environment is slick and minimal. Coffee came with refills, WiFi was consistent and fast.
Other places I visited included San Francisco Bakery (an ironic prelude to the next destination on my journey) and Starbucks (the perpetual fallback).
The Wrap
Next time I’m in Austin I hope to explore south Austin more. Caffeine was located in that neighborhood, as well as Freddie’s Place which Mike and I went for burgers. South Austin has a number of local businesses, a really nice vibe, and it is on my list for next time.
While Austin didn’t meet all my expectations as a dense urban area it was filled with great stores, like Cream Vintage, great cafés, and great people.
