Others

Stretching all our limbs like a soccer mom does to save seats at a sporting event, we roll ourselves out of the car we had been sitting in for three or so hours. Passing through Olympia, Aberdeen, and Humptulips, we finally made the trek to Kalaloch. A Pacific Ocean beach that greeted us with a sign reading “Beach log kills,” turned out to be a beautiful locale. The beach was filled with hundreds of dried Velella jellyfish and huge sandstone rocks that looked like they belonged on the moon. There were caverns, arches, and trees that the ground had fallen out from them, but they stood nonetheless with their roots perched perfectly strong against the sides of fallout.

Upon walking the shore, Ryan mentioned my last “moody little blog post” which I couldn’t help but agree that I should’ve signed “xoxo” in true gossip girl fashion. Alas, I stand by it.

All day long, “Come as you are” by Nirvana was stuck in my head because it was imprinted on the welcome sign to Aberdeen in honor of Kurt Cobain. The whole day I couldn’t help but think of if Kurt had been where I had or if he went to the beaches often at all. Traveling through the city with boarded up windows that intermixed with coffee huts- I tried to fit this all together with what I knew about Nirvana. And it didn’t really mesh- which I guess is what “Come as you are” is about anyway.

Also in Aberdeen, we stopped for coffee.

After an obscurely long wait, we pulled up to the kitschy coffee hut to look at what they offered. There were teas, coffee, extras, and “others”? And that is where it all started.

Under coffee there was the category “Blended” which I assumed in Starbucks terminology meant Frappuccino, hence sounding lovely as I was melting in my seat, pinned down through the windshield by the penetrating sun. Therefore, I ordered a blended coffee. The peppy barista asked me a series of questions as to if I wanted it iced, with espresso shots, what flavor I wanted, if I wanted it chocolatey, if I wanted a Frappuccino thing, etc. It was an ordeal. I just wanted a latte blended together with ice. That’s it. Finally, we both came to a consensus and I was looking forward to be melting alongside my frozen drink in the front seat of Ryan’s car. The barista then was asking her next customer a series of questions on what “iced” entailed.

I suddenly realized that I would soon be in the peppy barista’s position in Alaska.

And also totally clueless.

As much as I love coffee. I don’t know anything about how to make it. I am the classic Seattle hypocrite who’s not from Seattle, claims they are, drinks their coffee, critiques it, and is completely ignorant. BUT! I hope to soon be educated about the topic by becoming a barista….and asking probably a longer series of questions than I was asked that day.

So I will come to Alaska as I did Aberdeen, as I am- a clueless, peppy, and questioning barista that will take ten minutes just to start your order.

Alaska, come as you are, as a friend, as a known enemy- see you in three days.