My Highly Anticipated Coffee Shops in Washington Pt. 1

I’ve been home in Parkersburg all summer, which means that I’ve been coffee deprived for the past like 8 weeks. I’m working an 8-5 job Monday through Friday and that leaves no time for me to drive 25 minutes to the only coffee shop in town, Panera, to grab a cup of coffee and relax. It’s pretty miserable. Don’t get me wrong, I love to spend time with my family and I love that I grew up here, but I can’t help but get the feeling that it’s simply not where I belong anymore. I guess I could be wrong though, we’ll see.

Outside of making a pot of coffee in the morning and my few trips to Panera, I have been completely miserable in the coffee world back home. Luckily, my life will soon send me to coffee heaven where I can bask in all of the coffee goodness I can get my hands on.

So I’ve been doing my research for weeks now and wanted to share some of the places I’ll be trying out in Olympia throughout the next few months. (If you’re already in Washington then give me your feedback on these places and if there’s a great place I missed fill me in on that too.) I’m so excited to pack up my backpack with books, my journal and my computer, head down to these local shops and do nothing but read, write, blog, sip on some fine espresso and relax. I’m seriously dreaming about these days to come.

Cutters Point (http://www.cutterspoint.com/)

So this place seems pretty awesome. It’s actually franchised, but from what I’ve gathered it started in Gig Harbor, Washington. They have various shops throughout Washington, California and even in Georgia. They seem to be pretty serious when it comes to hand crafted coffee, but I’m going to have to go and find out for myself. I think I’m more into non-franchised local coffee shops, but could cutters point change my mind? We’ll see.

Olympia Coffee Roasting Company (http://olympiacoffeeroasting.com/)

After reading up about this place, it’s a must see. These people seem to be seriously dedicated to making the perfect cup of coffee, so much that they “obsess” over it, so they say. The owners of this local shop actually travel overseas and buy the coffee face to face with coffee farmers then they bring it back, roast it and when you buy a cup they say it’s never one week old out of the roaster. The website says that we’ll be shocked at how good the coffee tastes. This is going to put my current coffee lifestyle in Parkersburg to shame. I can’t wait.

Black Bear Diner (http://www.blackbeardiner.com/)

For the sake of the name, obviously, I have to see how it measures up to our infamous Black Bear Burritos in Morgantown. Seems to have a bit of a different feel to it than Black Bear back home, but we’ll see. It’s franchised throughout the west coast with emphasis on family and “old fashion” values. Doesn’t seem to be a place where I can catch a good cup of joe, but it would be cool if it had some sort of Morgantown atmosphere to it.

Sizizis (http://www.myspace.com/sizizis)

So, this will be awesome, and even though it isn’t listed first it will be the first place I go. There site says it’s a place where you can get a huge variety of specialty drinks, even though I’ll probably stick to an Americano or French Press. There seems to be some hype over their spiced mocha so I may have to check it out.

Regardless it seems to have an awesome atmosphere; the wood paneling gives off a somewhat vintage feel to the shop. Some upsides include free wifi, live shows and 24-hour service. If I could compare it to any shop back home I would say it defnitly has a Blue Moose feel to it, which is great, but I bet there coffee is a million times better, no offense Blue Moose goers. Definitely can’t wait to check it out and hopefully catch some fun local shows there too.

Dillanos Coffee Roasters (http://www.dillanos.com/?action=qualitystory4&subm=s_qstory&title=qualitystory)

There are a couple of locations in Olympia, and I’m anxious to see what they’re all about, it seems to me they take it pretty serious. Before serving their coffee they put it through extensive aroma, visual and taste testing. They seem to be a very passionate bunch of people and really love what they do. Their site says they want to have fun and make friends, and I’m into that. I seriously need to make some friends in Olympia, that statement in itself is enough to draw me in for now.

Mud Bay Coffee Company (http://www.mudbaycoffeeco.com/Why_It_Matters.html)

What’s cool about this shop is how focused their business is on helping out small farms. They realize how hard the coffee business is, and they focus their attention on buying their beans from farmers who may be suffering financially and need the cash. I think that’s pretty cool. Their site seems to talk more about the farmers than the coffee, so I don’t know what all they have to offer, or what the atmosphere of their shop is like at all for that matter, but I guess we’ll find out.

So, as you can see by the title of this post, it is only Part One of the short "My Highly Anticipated Coffee Shops in Washington" series . Part Two is yet to come, and will consist of feedback on these places from yours truly. Did I love it? Hate it? Mediocre? Well, we'll see, so stay tuned coffee lovers!

Finally, I’d like to leave you with this statement posted by liveolympia:

“Olympia has some of the most unique coffee houses in the Puget Sound area. If you are looking for a unique blend of coffee you will find it in Olympia. You will find a coffee shop or espresso stand on just about every street corner in Olympia. Many coffee houses in Olympia offer free wireless internet. Olympia has many coffee shops that will satisfy any appetite.”

My last 23 days in West Virginia

So I guess the last post titled 37 days was a joke. I must’ve miscalculated. 23 days left in the great West Virginia hills, then it’s “hello snow capped Mounties!” I’m pretty excited.

I can’t believe I’m leaving my home; it’s crazy. What do I even want to do in my last 23 days as a West Virginian…

Well, I’d like to make some money first of all. Tomorrow I’m having a big garage/bake sale and I’m hoping I can at least get $200. I know that once I make it out to Olympia I have enough money to last me till the end of the year, and I’m hoping that in between now and Christmas I can land a good job with benefits, and hopefully use my PR degree that I spent a squillian dollars on. That reminds me… I’m going to be paying back students loans soon aren’t I? shucks.

Outside of trying to make a few extra bucks I’ve made some fun plans with some friends. This weekend is completely dedicated to my garage sale, so not too much will be going on, but Sunday night one of my best friends from school, John Hupp, is coming to town. I love spending time with John, though we usually don’t do a whole lot outside of laugh and talk. I think that’s when you know you’ve got a good friend. You can just sit around with each other, and that’s entertainment enough. So we’re going to head up to my dads for a couple of days and sit down by the river and relax. I’m really looking forward to it.

Next weekend I’ll be heading to Huntington to play a gig. My friend Meredith is currently raising support to go to Nicaragua, and she’s having a big silent auction/ pool party thing. She asked me to be the live entertainment so I agreed. Some friends from home are heading over too so it should be a good time, but I’ll have to leave pretty late that night to head to Morgantown in order to make it to Stonebridge by the AM to lead worship.

I haven’t been to Stonebridge since I left Morgantown, and I really miss it. I think it’ll be weird for me to not see Pastor Russ there, but I know Jason is holding it down, for sure. I’m really excited to hear him preach again. After church I’ll probably catch lunch with some friends and then maybe head back to Parkersburg. This will make my last trip to Morgantown for quite awhile, so it’s going to be hard, but the time has come to make a change. I guess it might as well be a 3,000-mile kind of change, I mean why not? There’s too much to see and do to just sit around Morgantown forever, no matter how much I love it.

The weekend after my last trip to Morgantown I’m heading to the Big Apple, that’s right, NYC. John’s sister Tracy and her family live there, so he invited me to tag along with him while he goes to visit. I couldn’t turn him down.

Then we reach my very last weekend, the 13-15. (I just had to pause and take a deep breath there for a second. Nervous? Stressed? Yeah, a little.) Who knows how I’ll spend these last few days, probably with my family. I know I’m getting a haircut, but that doesn’t mean much. The fifteenth, that’s a Sunday, my church in Parkersburg is having a commissioning service for me. The pastor wants me to get up in front of everyone so they can pray for me and send me out onto the mission field. I think it will be pretty cool. I’ll probably cry, my family will probably cry, but it’s what I know I’m supposed to do. As time goes by I feel more and more content in my decision to pack up and move to the Northwest.

Yet everyone seems to think that this is a very easy transition for me, and I just want to make it clear that this is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I mean who in their right minds could say that moving 3,000 miles away is no biggie? It’s huge. Sure, it’s really exciting, extremely exciting, but saying goodbye and moving on from where you grew up and the places and people you feel comfortable with is not easy. I don’t even know one street name in Olympia. It’s definitely not comfortable or familiar to me, yet.

But here’s what I think. I don’t think that we’re not necessarily called to live these ultra comfy lifestyles as some Christians may preach. If you read through the Bible you’ll see that Jesus, and his inner circle of bros, didn’t have easy, comfortable lifestyles. Jesus obviously had it the worst, but was mocked at, spit at, laughed at and crucified all the while knowing He was God, and wanted so much to save the ones that hated Him. Peter was crucified upside down. Paul was chased out of cities, stoned, put in prison numerous times and then killed for his faith. There are more examples other than these guys, but when you look at how they lived their lives, it doesn’t really seem so easy. But they loved Jesus and their passion and dedication to Him spurred them on to do uncomfortable things, and I think that’s where I am. It’s scary, but I wouldn’t want to be in anyone else’s hands, but the Lords. I know He’s taking care of me and looking out for me through this transition.

I’ve had people ask me recently “How do you know that it’s God’s will? I don’t know, and I don’t feel like it’s the right thing for you to do.” Well, the thing is, is that we’re never going to know 100% what it is God has in store for our futures (other than the fact that as Christians, we have been promised eternity with Christ in a really super awesome sweet heaven). If we knew 100% then we wouldn’t be taking steps of faith. It’s like Jesus calling Peter out of the boat and onto the water. We must take those steps of faith and learn to trust God. So, that’s what I am currently trying to do. Trust God and take a step of faith. I guess we’ll see how it all pans out. The days are going to fly by.

37 days.

I think it’s time that I started to count down till the big move: 37 days.

Time has really flown by this summer. Watching Lyla has been one of the greatest joys in my life, and as time goes by I am realizing more and more how much I’m going to miss watching her grow and getting to spend so much time with her.

Only 37 days to go and I’m not even half way to my support goal. It’s totally stressful. I played a worship set and spoke at Lubeck Community Baptist Church in June and got most of the money that I currently have. I’ve had a really hard time getting people to respond to my support letters that I’ve sent out, and it’s pretty discouraging.

Luckily, today I got two contacts of pastors in the Parkersburg area that may be able to help me out, so I’m really praying hard that our conversations will go well this week, and they can help me financially this fall. I also talked to a friend in Parkersburg who knows of a church in Huntington that may let me come and speak the first of August, so that’s good. I only have four Sundays left so I don’t know how I will fit all of this in, but God is going to work it out and in the mean time I’m trying hard not to stress.

On a happier note… I found out recently that I get to have lunch with Pastor Mark Driscoll in Washington toward the end of August. If you don’t know Mark Driscoll, you should. I first heard him speak my junior year of college with two of my best friends, Jordan Stone and Sara Matheny. The talk was called Enjoy Your Life and it was all about loving the Lord and enjoying His creation. It changed my view on God a lot, and made me love Him even more. It really showed me that God is totally not distant from us, that He loves spending time with us and that He has created this whole world out of love and wants nothing more than for us to enjoy it.

Anyway, I got hooked on listening to Mark’s sermons and have been listening to him ever since. He’s is one of the biggest mentors in my life, even though we’ve never met. I look up to him a ton and I can’t believe I’m going to get to meet him. It’s super exciting! I’m probably going to go off telling him how great I think he is and thank him so much for living such a busy and hectic life so people can hear of Jesus. I’m sure I’ll sound like an idiot, but I don’t even care. I’m going to meet Mark Driscoll!!!! AHHH!!! =) haha.

Speaking of great things… I had a fabulous weekend. I got to spend time in Parkersburg with a few of my best friends from college, Sarah Johnson (Sij) and Sarah Yopp. We ended up saying our goodbyes to Sij, which was sad, but I’ll see meet up with her in December. She is moving to Orlando to work with Campus Crusade for Christ and the Jesus Film, and I’m sure the next time I see her we’re going to have so many cool stories about what God has been doing all over the country and throughout the world.

After Sij left I couldn’t sit around cause I would just cry, so I cleaned my moms entire house. (lawlz) I worked from 1-8. I went through all my stuff to prepare for a garage sale this weekend. I found some fun things from freshman year, like pictures and what not, and it was pretty sad. I can’t believe that it’s all over, it’s just now hitting me I think. So I packed up a bunch of boxes and stored them in my closet. Whenever I go to move all I have to do is pack my clothes and I’ll be set. I can’t believe it. It hardly seems real to me. Nonetheless it’s an exciting time and I’m ready to explore the Northwest. I can’t wait to see those beautiful mountains!

With You

I wanted to share a song with you that I wrote about a month ago. It's mostly about this current stage in my life and trusting God to provide the things I need to live next year in Washington. I'm realizing now that it's going to be a harder transition than I had anticipated, but it is going to be a sweet adventure, and I'll welcome the hard times when they come.. it helps build character. So here's my latest tune. I hope you enjoy it