"he was my cream, and i was his coffee

-and when you pour us together, it was something."
--Josephine Baker

this post is dedicated to a coffee establishment where i have spent many a long night.

caffiend.
asheville's very own 24-hour coffee house.
their motto is "SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK."

while caffiend is (usually) a GREAT place to get into study-mode with other asheville-area students and gear up for the week's tests and papers, it has been and still is something so much more than that for me.

i have made some really fantastic friends there. there's luke, alex, jc, alicia, jay, paul, stefania, james, matthew, ian, sarah, nick, river, crow, blaize, other nick, mina, brandon, corwen, salem, lindsey, tess, neil, and more. these are people that i have bonded with over coffee, cigarettes, and hours-long conversation.

i am so lucky.

i have even had the pleasure of hanging out with many of these folks outside of caffiend. tomorrow night, luke and alex are coming to the opening night of my play. it's incredible that i could build such relationships with people that i simply met in passing at a coffee shop one night.

caffiend, because of its hours, has an atmosphere that is out of reach for most coffee shops. caffiend is my living room. it's where i go to curl up in a big chair or fluffy couch and study, read, run lines, exist outside of my dorm room, or meet new people. no matter what time i go, i know the barista and then some. the coffee tastes very much like the coffee at my house does because it is simply that familiar. (except i can get a latte or an americano at caffiend! hoorays!) i go to caffiend because, well, because i can't go home. i can't go back to my hometown and have coffee with my mom, so i do the next best thing.

i am so grateful for caffiend. if it weren't for caffiend, i wouldn't have survived my previous year of college and i wouldn't have so many wonderful friends.

hats off to matthew hebb, the owner.

coming soon: coffee and comfort: how coffee is relied on to make bad situations better.