Coffee break

It's almost 3 o'clock and I'm sitting here still sipping on my double skim latte with cinnamon on top from the Dirt Cowboy Cafe. It's from this morning! Gasp! One of the editors at the ABA used to make fun of my friend Holly, another editor, for nursing her espresso all day - think of the milk! he'd say. I know ... but I can't help it.

I really shouldn't even get a double, but I can't pass up on the great deal: when you order a double espresso-anything, you get a muffin or scone for free. Not that I ate the scone or anything, it's still in my messenger bag. I'll probably freeze it for this weekend.

Besides, downing the coffee right before I head out to gym always makes my workout go a little faster. Of course, this probably means I'm artificially elevating my heartbeat and not truly getting the most out of the workout.

But I digress ... this was supposed to be a entry about coffee and how I was reminiscing about all the cool coffee/cafe places I used to hang out in in Chicago.

Like ...

Julius Meinl near Southport
Cafe Intelligentsia in Lakeview
Letizia's Bakery in Wicker Park
Red Hen on Diversey
Pierrot Gourmet off Michigan Ave (croissants to die for!)
L'Appetito on the other side of Michigan, underneath the Hancock tower
Torrefazione Italia in the Playboy Building, when the ABA was located on the lake
(Now I can't remember where we used to go for coffee after the ABA moved over to the river! I can totally picture taking the #22 down Clark Street and getting off near the 7-Eleven, but then where did I go for coffee? ABP? Was there a coffee place in our building? Have to think about this one!)

It was so much easier to eat pastries when you spent most of your time walking from place to place and burning off all those calories!