Coffee Chat // March 14, 2016

It's cherry blossom season! *Heart eyes* for daaaays.

A few random thoughts for today...

1. I think I have to give up coffee and I am MAD ABOUT IT. For some reason, I get terrible coffee-coughs—something about the caffeine and/or milk (dairy or otherwise) produces a lot of phlegm (TMI! SORRY!) and I get a stuffy nose and cough non-stop. At best it's an annoyance and at worst it sometimes feels like I'm drowning and can't breathe. I've tried to adjust how I prepare it (with almond, coconut, dairy milk) without much of a difference. Sometimes iced coffee is better, but other times not. As a last ditch effort, I might try decaf or switching to black coffee to see if that helps, but if not I think we have to break up. I LOVE the ritual of making coffee, the smell, and the warmth and energy it gives me, but if my body doesn't like it, I have to listen :(

2. Speaking of rocky relationships, I'm feeling a bit unsure about the future of my booktube channel. It's not something I've talked about out loud yet, but the thoughts are there. A lot of it has to do with feeling unbalanced between consuming and creating content. When I try to put out more videos, I read a lot less AND the (very) time-consuming process of video-making takes me away from other creative pursuits like writing and art. To really be a part of the booktube community, a certain amount of engaging with other people's content is necessary as well, and that's an additional time commitment. I've been left wondering how the pieces fit together as my priorities seem to be shifting. In some ways I've used online communities as a substitute for face-to-face interactions—almost every booktuber states that they joined the community because of a lack of fellow book lovers IRL. For me that feels like a cop-out, especially when I know of local book clubs I could join. There's a pull to focus on my physical community, and I think the payoff of that would be greater than whatever the long-game is for my channel. But maybe it doesn't have to be either/or, which is a thinking trap I often fall into.

3. My latest edible obsession is Trader Joe's Field Fresh Chopped Salad with Grilled Chicken and Sweet Basil Dressing. Which is weird, because basil is probably my least favorite fresh herb (blasphemy, I KNOW). Despite this, I think the salad is delicious—sweet and chewy and filling with lots of good stuff like dried currants, corn, red pepper, Israeli couscous, and pecans in it. After three consecutive weekly grocery store trips in which the salad ended up in my cart for lunch that day, it occurred to me that I should probably just figure out how to make it myself (and it'd probably taste better fresh anyways). Luckily some other people have done that for me already here and here, and I'm excited to see how a DIY version compares.

4. Does anyone have a good notes app to recommend? I've found that an essential key to keeping up with writing is to capture all those fleeting thoughts and ideas before they evaporate. I currently use the native iPhone notes app, which is fine, but I wondered if there was a better option out there. I've dabbled in Evernote (mostly through the desktop version not the app) and tbh I've found it sort of... overwhelming? But I probably just don't know how to use it effectively.

5. There's nothing like Daylight Savings to remind me that I'm such a delicate flower. I am DRAGGING today. It doesn't help that it's been raining most of the past 2 days (or 3? 4? You lose count in Portland). Plus, I'm avoiding coffee as I mentioned above. No amount of tea and vitamin D pills are helping me today, but hopefully with an early bedtime tonight I'll get my schedule back on track shortly.