Falling in love at a coffee shop

My favorite commercial of the summer was one of AT&T's - with the couple reuniting, and Landon Pigg's Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop playing in the background. I'm not an AT&T customer (although I considered it after so many hassles with Verizon!), but I just love this commercial... maybe it's because of the song, which I first heard featured on the 20th anniversary edition of the Cities 97 Sampler.

Either way, here it is:



Sound quality's not great, but you get the picture. Listen to the full version of the song here!

Spotlight: Zumes

I intern in an adorable area of Charlestown - old buildings, active neighbors, and one of the cutest coffee shops I've ever been to.

Zumes (pronounced Zume-eez and named after the owner's dog) is a quintessential neighborhood coffee shop - the kind of place where people come at the same time every day, spend their afternoons inside working on laptops or watching their children, and everyone knows each other. It's got a great atmosphere - makes me want to be one of the regulars, where I come in and they start making my drink for me before I even order - just because it's that kind of place.

And they make a killer raspberry mocha. Hot. Iced. Anything. And their sandwiches and bars are great, too. It may actually be a little more expensive than Starbucks, but the quality is worth it (and I love Starbucks). Plus, the free wi-fi is great for working from the coffee shop instead of the office!

Zumes is located on 233 Main Street in Charlestown, check it out!

Photo via.

Because I want to

There's actually a pretty long list of things that I don't like but wish I did: ketchup, pickles, most cheeses, salad dressing, cottage cheese... and coffee tops the list, so I'm working on it! Most people try to ween themselves off of coffee, but I'm going at it full speed - why? There's so much you can do when you drink coffee!

Coffee dates. Whether it's a romantic interest or just to catch up with a friend, going for coffee's a classic activity (especially when you can't go out for drinks)... but it's kind of strange to suggest going to coffee and then, well, not getting coffee. It just doesn't fit.

Coffee shops. They're everywhere and they're adorable. I love trying new ones and I dream of being a regular at the cute coffee shop right around the corner from my future apartment.

Coffee ice cream. ... Is amazing. Even though I don't like coffee. Yet.

Caffeine. Yea, I know it's supposed to be bad for you (granted, I'm done growing, so is it really a problem that caffeine stunts your growth?), but it's just so helpful! Especially as a college student. Plus, I recently heard of a study saying that caffeine helps prevent Alzheimer's, so sign me up!

Starting slow

My roommate and I just started season 2 of Desperate Housewives, and Bree starts one of the episodes by saying that there are 2 types of people in the world: the ones who are useless before their first cup of coffee, and the ones who aren't. I've never been a big coffee person - love the smell, hate the taste, never saw a purpose for it. But, for some reason, I just want to like coffee. Really badly.

So that's my project: I'm training myself to like coffee. Everyone else bemoans their caffeine addictions, but I secretly want to see what it's like (I guess not so secretly anymore). So as of now, I'm on the bean. Starting at day one with my raspberry mochas - sweet, chocolate-y, with a hint of raspberry and basically no coffee taste... and working my way up. One day soon: plain black coffee!