aerosol inducing jitters.

I just arrived at my favorite coffee shop in town, only to realize it's no longer my favorite coffee shop.

It was once called Jitters, still is, but not for much longer. Jitters. Great name for a coffee shop. I mean, caffeine tends to send you into that state that can really only be described as jittery. It's not convulsing. It's not shaking. Those little involuntary actions can't even be described as tremors. They're jitters. And that's one of the reasons I loved this spot so much.

Ok, yeah, the name was cool. But the chai was what kept me coming back. Dirty chai at that. Dirty Big Train Chai. Tasted like buttery goodness, with that espresso kick to get me fired up. And they had this blueberry cream cheese that knocked my socks right off. But no more.

<---Far superior, calorie stricken, throat coating chai.









<----Although it's from a cool place, not so cool, much less tasty chai.








This new place is soon to be known as Open Cup. Weird. There's no flavored cream cheese and they only sell Oregon Chai now...which don't get me wrong, I love Oregon. I even have my child-sized thrift store gem U of O hoodie on right now, but Oregon Chai is just too OREGON for me. It's not chalk full of sugar and fat, which is what I desperately desire when sitting down to write and be productive. Yes, I will eventually crash, and crash quite hard, but the jitters at Jitters were magical. I've always been productive in this place.

I think I can continue being productive, because I suppose the name and product offered isn't so much what gets my creative neurons firing, it's more like the environment. And yes, the vibe here has changed a bit, but it's still conducive to a juicy river of flowing creativity. So I'm pondering. Brewing up some new ideas for this silly life of mine.

I'm getting better at bartending, so that's cool. I feel comfortable back there. I've had several customers not only tell ME that I'm doing a great job, but they've gone so far as to tell my managers. I'm permeating this dark hole, slowly but surely, the light will win out. I have such hope.

Tonight is 90's night at Sandbar. I will be there in all my geometric glory. Loud colors careening off my body and into the ditches of nearby onlooker eye sockets. I found an epic, and when I say epic, I'm not just tossing it around like these dime store cheeseballs that WISH they had something to describe as epic, no, I found an exclusive one of a kind windbreaker, child size of course, that screams 90's in what can only be described as an epic way. An epic is heroic and grand in scale. Welcome to my life inside this jacket. You'll get a picture tomorrow. Don't you fret.

But for now, enjoy this 90's montage...

Nano pets. You had one. I had three. A series of four buttons gave you all the God like power and responsibility of caring for and potentially killing off a living, breathing virtual being. Scary huh? All that responsibility. Be careful. It's poop will pile up and it will die amidst mounds of its own excrement. This particular nano pet was apparently auctioned off to some chickeneaters. Weird. 

Jellies. Or Jelliez. Whichever way you choose to spell it, they're still not cool. Anymore. They used to be the coolest thing since plastic. Oh wait, they are plastic, which explains their sheer lack of comfort. But beauty is pain right. A passion for fashion comes hand in hand with patchy red skin, worn raw by one of the most unpleasant trends since the bulbous bouffant (all that hairspray had to have done some serious damage)

  

TRL in its prime. We've got here both Britney and Carson, when they were cute. I used to race home from 6th period sports in 7th grade, all sweaty and hungry for cheeto puffs and a pop, yearning for some Total Request Live. Those top ten music videos brought meaning to my life. I was cool by association. I had something to talk about with the kids at school. Oh. Em. Gee. Britney dropped from number 1 after 97 straight days. What is this world coming to? Oh Carson, you once had my tweenaged heart in the palm of your clammy hand. But then you sold out (or got fired) I'm not sure which, and then all those myriad of not so cool VJ's came in. And TRL just wasn't the same. Shame.

Scrunchies. These sassy over the top hairbands with their unnecessary amounts of fabric, are comparable to Kleenex and Band-Aids, in that their brand name actually became the universal name for all hairbands excessive in nature. All that to say, it's actually spelled Scunci, with an umlaut over the u. Umlauts are German and are comparable to Spanish accents, not accent as in dialect, accent as in emphasis on a particular syllable. So the way we have obliterated the name of this once popular fashion statement only proves accurate in the way this once popular fashion statement obliterated yearbook photos for an entire decade.

This photo screams 1996. I chose it for the puka shell necklaces but since have discovered other choice mementos of the 90's. Note the Nike visor and the Big Gulp.

                                 

We couldn't escape the 90's montage without a tribute to the show that has cost me countless exclamations of incredulity. "Has anyone ever called you Sabrina the Teenage Witch?" "OMG! You are soooooo original. I've actually NEVER heard that one before. Congratulations on your clever connection. I'm gonna go feed my creepy robotic talking cat now." Thank you Melissa Joan Hart, for hoisting me up onto this never-ending platform of Infamous.

This montage wouldn't be complete without a playlist of the top 90's jams. And no, I'm not going to google the top 100 songs of the 90's. Sandbar did that, and yeah, most of the songs are pretty wonderful and nostalgic, but there are some gems that slipped through the cracks of the Billboard charts.

So here's my own rendition...not in any particular order....

No Rain-Blind Melon           

Opera Singer-Cake           

Tubthumping-Chumbawamba           

Pinch Me-Barenaked Ladies           

Mr.Jones-Counting Crows

Dreams-The Cranberries                                   

Loser-Beck

Slide-Goo Goo Dolls           

When I Come Around-Green Day           

Gangsta's Paradise-Coolio           

California Love (Feat. Dr. Dre)-Tupac           

Gotta Be-Dezire           

I Like-Guy           

I Only Wanna Be With You-Hootie & The Blowfish           

Who Will Save Your Soul-Jewel           

Poison -Bell Biv DeVoe           

Fantasy-Mariah Carey           

Jumpin’, Jumpin’-Destiny's Child           

This is How We Do-Montell Jordan           

Waterfalls-TLC

Smells Like Teens Spirit-Nirvana           

Peaches-The Presidents of the United States of America           

Higher Ground-Red Hot Chili Peppers           

Walkin' On The Sun-Smash Mouth           

Cherub Rock-Smashing Pumpkins           

Smoke Two Joints-Sublime           

Tom's Diner-Susan Vega            

One of Us-Joan Osborne           

Jumper-Third Eye Blind                       

One-U2           

Bittersweet Symphony-The Verve           

Blister in the Sun-Violent Femmes           

One Headlight-The Wallflowers           

Wonderwall-Oasis            

I fully acknowledge my imperfections in that both of these montages don't completely encapsulate the majesty of the 90's, but due to my inability to fully manhandle this Blogger website, it has taken me far too long already to format and fit all of these beautious pictures and passages in an aesthetically pleasing blog for your pleasure. Feel free to comment and point out my flaws.

Today is another good day. Coffee makes me happy. Writing makes me happy. The 90's make me happy. I hope you exit out of this blog feeling happy as well.