One More Writer

The photo above is from my favorite coffee shop in Salem, the Governor's Cup. It's a great place to study, the lighting is great, they play interesting music, and most importantly, have interesting patrons, like the guy above. I was pretty sure he was a bum about to hit me up for some spare change, but all he wanted was to know what I was doing with 200 notecards sprawled out over the table and why I would voluntarily subject myself to that kind of labor. I grinned and told him it was for law school, and yup, I loved it.

I have decided I like coffee just as much as I like whiskey, which is to say not very much at all. It's one of those things (like whiskey) that I feel should be drank as often as it's offered to me. When it's piping hot I like drinking it (the same way I enjoy whiskey when it's biting cold at a football game ... but then it has the different status of "touchdown whiskey," a sacred rite of the flask and football.) By the time it cools off I'm grimacing as I gulp down grinds and tepid coffee, making the same face as when someone asks me to put down a shot of Cutty Sark. This won't stop me from ordering two cups of straight black coffee when I'm next at GC, though. That's just what you're supposed to do!

Things are going wonderfully with Valerie. As class wasn't until 10:20 this morning, I carpooled down to Eugene on Wednesday with my buddy Brian, who owns a house with his girlfriend down in the 'Uge and thus commutes down there a lot. Val and I went over to my parents' house for an evening of card games and then watched the worst movie ever made, Tremors, which is actually a fantastic film if you're only half-paying attention to it. The low body count disturbed me, though. I really wanted more people to die at the jaws of the worms, or whatever those things were. I like how the movie never really explained where they came from. A hazard of living in rural Arizona, I guess.

Anyway, seeing Valerie is a fantastic thing. For once, I'm not trying to steer a relationship one way or the other, I'm just sitting back and letting God do the work. It's relaxing, if slightly frightening, and I must admit putting this much trust in God is a challenge. I have no idea where it will go but I think that's OK.