Coffee Pilgrimage Part 2

My friends and I have kept up our exploration of local coffee shops, and thus far we have not been disappointed in the slightest. Here are the others we have visited so far.

City Cakes and Cafe receives a solid 10 from me. Excellent drinks, excellent pastries and great food.














Sugarhouse Coffee was also awesome, and a solid 8. I quite enjoyed the atmosphere.







Jitterbug was super sweet, and ended with a group trip to Instacare due to a mild concussion from the day before. Incidentally, this is our second group trip to Instacare, though this one did not end in the ER :)








We also went to Coffee Garden. It's about a 7 for me.









More to come, I'm sure.

Song of the Moment: Don't Cry For Me Argentina by the Glee Cast

Mistletoe Musings

So, as it turns out I kind of suck at posting. This certainly doesn't surprise me considering that I rarely seem to have time to do anything other than breathe. My level of activity is such that a professor looked at me one day when I was talking about heading home and said 'wait, you go home?'

Is this an excuse? Well, probably not considering that while I'm at work I'm pretty consistently on the computer, but give me a bit of a break :)

Anyway, with the Christmas (and other Holidays. I just happen to celebrate Christmas) season all around us and rapidly approaching, I've been thinking a lot about things probably far more existential than is strictly normal. Basically what I've come up with is this:

For me, faith isn't about shouting it from the rooftops. Spirituality and faith have always been a relatively private thing for me. The only thing that would outwardly indicate that I have some sort of religious affiliations would be the cross that I rarely take off. Anyway, back to my point. In my opinion, being vocal about your beliefs doesn't really prove anything. I'm all for people who are proud about their faith and want to talk about it, don't get me wrong; but for me, it's always been about what I feel inside. I don't think that God has some beef with me because I don't declare my love through a bull horn. I believe that He (and trust me, I cannot believe I just typed that) sees what is in my heart and doesn't care that I don't shout praises unless I'm in church. He knows what I believe, I know what I believe, and for me that's what counts. Of course this is just one way of looking at things, but it's something I've been thinking about the past couple of days that I thought I would share.

Now just to let you know that I haven't completely slipped a cog and gone all Martin Luther hammering treatises to the door at Wittenburg on you, I will quite unabashedly admit that while I love giving gifts (and oh boy do I, even when my bank account hates me for it :) ) I also love to receive them. If we're being honest we all love to get gifts, because it provides us with this tangible proof of love and caring from our friends and family that is just warming and caring and awesome. That being said, I had a very small Christmas list this year as A, I'm getting a bit older and don't feel the need to write six pages, and B as I'm getting older my list gets more and more practical. The number one on my Christmas list this year?

One of these!



It may seem a strange thing to ask for, but have you ever made homemade frosting by hand?! If I keep it up the muscles in my right arm will begin to resemble Popeye's while those on the left continue to bear a striking resemblance to those of Olive Oyle

Also on the list....


No, I didn't ask for David Tennant for Christmas, though I know most of you wouldn't put it past me, and I wouldn't necessarily put it past me really. I asked for all of the new Doctor Who seasons other than 2, as I already have that one :)

What else, you may ask........?



Can you stand the excitement?! What? I like tea!

Of course the gold standards were in there as well, particularly shoes and fuzzy socks. I also needed a new stocking and succinctly informed my mother that it must be purple, though I doubt this would surprise anyone.

So those are my thoughts on Christmas. Take them , leave them , they are what they are. :)

Song of the Moment: Grown Up Christmas List by Amy Grant

Coffee Pilgrimage!

So a while ago my friends and I were talking yet again about all of the cute little independent coffee shops here in Utah, and Rachana brought up the idea of checking a bunch of them out. So we all decided to take turns picking coffee places for what has now become known as the Coffee Pilgrimage!

Our first stop was this cute place on 9th called Red Moose Coffee





For me, I would say that Red Moose gets a rating of a solid 7. We had some issues with our order; some of us were given the completely wrong drinks, but when things were fixed it was pretty awesome. My grilled cheese was pretty tasty, and pretty aesthetically pleasing.



My Pumpkin Chai was completely awesome, and I don't know how Darsh's Pumpkin Mocha tasted but it was pretty.





But the absolute best part of the afternoon at Red Moose was this a-freaking-mazing banana chocolate chip muffin. It rocked my world.




The second stop in the Coffee Pilgrimage was Greenhouse Effect. It's another place on 9th (Methinks there be a pattern here) I would give it an 8, mostly based on this completely and totally fabulous Pumpkin Spice crepe.



Mica's Strawberry Crepe was very gorgeous as well.



As was Kelsie's Italian savory crepe



I have to say that if it hadn't been for the crepe, Greenhouse Effect probably would have only gotten a 4 or 5. There were some issues with our orders, my steamer was mediochre and there were tons of flies in there for some reason. However, I'd like to end on a positive note, so here are some pictures I took of their admittedly fun decor while we were there.







More coffee shop adventures to follow!

Song of the Moment: Jar of Hearts by Cristina Perry

The Midterm Slump and the Onset of Fall

As the title suggests, I'm feeling the midterm slump. We're right in that period where we're trying to get everything done before Fall Break and we're in that stage of anticipating a whole week of no school, and of course it can never come soon enough. I like school, don't get me wrong, but it can be tedious. And when you know you have a break coming up it seems to become a million times more tedious/aggravating/whatever.

Either way I do find myself grateful because the break is coming, it finally feels like fall, and all of the fall flavors and scents are out! Just check out all this fabulous stuff; my favorite things of fall!

Pea Coats


Hot Cider


All kinds of pie



Boots and Scarves



Chai (Extra points for being Twinings)



Fall scent candles


Sweaters


My favorite holiday.... HALLOWEEN!


Pumpkin Spice drinks


Skull suckers


Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kisses (I may or may not have dodged around some lady to get some at the store)


Fallen leaves


And leaning towards winter, Egg Nog


So it just goes to show you that even when you feel like crap, there's always something to smile about.

Song of the Moment: Only the Good Die Young by Mark Salling from Glee

Fall Must Haves

Yes, I know I only wrote a few hours ago, but I've been looking at Fashion Blogs and it occurred to me that there are so many fall fashion items I really want this year. Better than just wanting them , I decided to put them here in order to have a visual record :)

First of all, the shooooooeeeeees!

I love these boots and I want them terribly bad. But then they're purple, so thats not shocking



Meet my Go To winter shoes. I wear them constantly with skinny jeans



How comfy do these look?



My nickname is Roo so I was basically destined to want a pair of these shoes



I already have two pair of these shoes and still I want more!


Blowfish again!



I have fallen in love with tops like this


I cannot explain why I so love prep school sweaters, but I do



Love Cardigans



I have a love affair with cable knit


I swear I hardly wear regular jeans anymore


I loves me some skinny jeans


So there you have it. Only a few of the items I reaaaalllly want this winter

Song of the Moment: Say Shava Shava from K3G