I'm sitting in Starbucks, trying to be inspired.

My favorite coffee house just had a power outage, so I'm in Starbucks.

Starbucks is fine in Chicago when it's summer and you can sit outside and people-watch, or in New York, where you need your coffee on the way to wherever, and need it in a timely manner. It's also worth planning your cross-country drive around Starbucks, (i.e. civilization): flashback to me in a casino in West Wendover, Nevada, having stayed the night in the $40-per-night-circa-1985-televisionless hotel room, just for the Starbucks in the lobby...that's a story for another day...

Starbucks is fine when you're in a hurry or want to blend in, or when you are driving across Wyoming and are desperate for civilization...and it's probably fine in a foreign country...it's rather like an embassy of sorts.

But in Redding, the coffee culture is very different. Nowhere will you receive a well-crafted cup of coffee in under 5 minutes, except maybe at Brew. Most certainly not at Starbucks. (...believe me, the first time I had to  wait for my almond milk cafe au lait, I nearly tore my hair out. I quickly learned-- from vowing never to go back there again-- only to experience the same phenomenon at the next establishment, and the next...and the next, that the pace of life is different here.

It's very slow. And don't even get me started on the driving. No. I'm on a negativity fast. It's only an observation. I am not allowed to rant.

So yes. It's slow. But it's also amaze-balls.

In Redding, though it takes no less than 5 minutes, sometimes 10, I can order single-origin-organic-fair-trade-waterprocessed-decaf-hemp-milk-flat-whites without anyone batting an eye, or saying "...I'm sorry, what milk?"

I also now have a favorite coffee house. It is new, and it has quickly become the see-and-be-seen place, but not as much as the other, older, see-and-be-seen place, where most of my favorite musicians work. (listen here) Or more specifically, are employed; the other day, one of my other favorite singer/songwriters came in to my primary favorite coffee house to work...like write undisturbed, while I tried my best to my best "NBD, your-song-just-changed-my- life" face, and not pee my pants. (listen to that song here).

Anyway, I'm sitting here trying to be inspired, and maybe I am. I am definitely happy, and my favorite place will be open tomorrow, although, if it's 108F for a third day in a row, the power may go out again, and I may have to seek refuge at Starbucks again. We'll see...