Before I moved to Alaska, I had no familiarity with earthquakes or what they felt like. Upon arriving, on the first day an old man approached me and asked if I was new there to which I answered yes.
“Well, just givin’ you a heads up... we have earthquakes often up here, but don’t worry about it! They’re tiny and usually just feel like a rumble beneath your feet. You’ll know it when you feel it. Just didn’t want you to be too scared when it happens, is all.”
So I’m asleep in my new room that same night and around 2am am jolted awake by the loudest rumbling I’ve ever heard in my entire life. My bed was moving across the floor, the building was shaking on its foundation. It was as if we had awoken some great earth god from his two thousand year slumber and he was roaring with rage.
In my half asleep mind I thought to myself: “ah, yes, this must’ve been what the old man meant earlier...” AND I FELL BACK ASLEEP.
Imagine my surprise when I woke up a few hours later to everyone around me panicking and checking on every person they could find to make sure we were alright. There was a massive crack running right through the road next to where I was sleeping, leaving a chasm in its wake.
Long story short: that was a 7.1 and the strongest earthquake they had seen since the 1960s and my sleep groggy dumbass didn’t realize until somebody informed me what I’d just been through.
In Alaska there’s a superstition that if you whistle when the northern lights are out, you might end up calling them down to you and that they can and will snatch you up and take you away to the spirit world, never to be seen on this earth again. So according to a friend who was born and raised in one of the northwest villages, mothers would sometimes warn their children not to stay outside too long at night for this very reason.
Well, one night my friends and I decided to go out to photograph the lights because they were supposed to be particularly vibrant that night... and they WERE. It was perfect and we were able to get a bunch of gorgeous photos... until one person in my group decided to be smug and turned to look at us and just says:
“I’m gonna do it.”
The group of us looked at him with raised eyebrows as he began to whistle as loudly as he could. And I shit you NOT, everyone who was there can vouch for it--- the lights (that had been previously slow moving and fairly static) took a long dip downward towards our group.
I have never heard a grown man scream so loud to this day and I will NEVER forget that, lmao.
Years ago in Alaska I worked a summer job in the middle of nowhere. Let me reiterate that: it was a town with a population of about 60 people in middle of the woods where the nearest civilization was over three hours away. Actual middle of nowhere.
There I met a woman in her late 50s. We had the same shift and she often worked alongside me.
One thing I found intriguing about her was that unlike every other person I worked with, she actually lived in this little town. The rest of us were all transplants from elsewhere looking for adventure. I’d heard her reference the fact that she wasn’t *originally* from Alaska, so of course my curiosity got the better of me and one day I straight up asked her how she ended up there. If you want to hear a story that (I personally) found kind of amazing, keep reading.
She told me that about 15 years ago (would be 18 years ago today) she signed up for an online dating site, met a man whom she fell head over heels in love with, “And would you believe it?” She says to me. “A lawyer from California!” She spoke about it as if this was the last sort of person she imagined she’d end up with, laughing a bit.
About six months into their relationship she moved from her home in Arizona to be with him and as she described it, had the time of her life. A love affair that felt like it could never end. The both of them were so happy to be together. She had sparkles in her eyes when she talked of this time and it was honestly so sweet to see.
However, about 9 months in she said his mood began to wane. It was as if with each passing day, he would come home a duller version of himself. It eventually got so bad that she confronted him and asked him to get help... to do something because she couldn’t stand to see him so unhappy and something was clearly wrong that he wasn’t being fully honest about. But each time he would claim that everything was fine and that he would figure it out.
All of this culminated when one day she noticed that he hadn’t greeted her coming home like he usually did. In fact, she realized, she hadn’t seen him at all yet and by this time she’d usually know if he had come home.
“Then...” she says to me, a funny smile on her face now. “The smell of campfire smoke hit my nose.” She says she then followed the trail of smoke until she opened the door to the backyard and saw her partner standing over a small fire, holding his expensive suits in his arms and tossing them in the flames one by one to watch them burn.
Of course, this would concern anyone so she immediately asks him what he’s doing and here’s my best memory of what she told me he said:
“I can’t do this anymore. This job, this society, this way of life. It’s killing me slowly. I should have been honest with you, I know, but I need to lay it all out now: I’m moving to Alaska. I need to get away from this place and experience something different. If this isn’t appealing to you, I understand. But I do love you, and if you’d like... I’d love to have you along for the ride.”
“The rest is history.” She said, turning again to me with an even bigger smile on her face. “We are even more in love now than we were then, happy to say. This is not something I’d have ever thought to do on my own, but I’ve never been happier for taking the risk.”
The two of them were nestled in the cutest little cabin in the woods, far away from most modern conveniences. I managed to convince them to watch one of my favorite corny 80s movies, Electric Dreams, and they loved every moment of it-- (Totally made my week to hear.)
OKAY SO BASICALLY I have this thing where I collect cardboard sleeves from all the coffee shops around the country that I’ve gotten a drink at as a sort of memories thing so of COURSE I had to check and see if one existed in this remote arctic town my school friends and I were visiting
I found exactly (1) listed on google and we all decided to take the half hour walk in the snow to get there. Upon arriving all we see is this super nondescript, tiny building.. like... NO SIGNS IN SIGHT.. nothing signaling that it’s a coffee shop. Even the location just... seemed so far away from any of the other buildings in town. Imagine for a moment this snow covered shack sitting in the middle of white nothingness with a bunch of sword-length icicles hanging off of it. But there seemed to be lights on inside so after finding the door unlocked, we walked in.
Once in there we’re greeted by the sight of this old woman crouching and hiding from us behind the coffee counter. As the door shuts behind us, she finally, still ducked down as if terrified for her life, pokes her head out from behind the coffee machine to peer at us.
“That’s all of you, right?” She hesitantly asks to which I answer: “Yeah, just the four of us.”
“OH, THANK GOD! I was afraid you were going to bring the whole village with you. I just need to know one thing before you sit down, though.”
“Yeah?” I answer.
“H...how did you FIND me???”
“Your business and address was listed on google.”
Cue the most EXASPERATED sigh ever and the only thing that comes out of her mouth next is “Sharryl......”
We ended up having a great time there and actually got to know her a bit. She operated this little coffee shop as sort of a half coffee, half thrift shop sort of thing. The place was FULL of antiques and other interesting knick-knacks. Even her espresso machine was ENORMOUS and made of brass. I asked about it and she claimed it was from the 60s and that she “won it in an auction in Seattle in the 80s and had it shipped right up. Y’know they just don’t make ‘em like this anymore.”
And Sharryl? Apparently that was her friend down the street that was such a massive fan of her coffee that she had been trying to convince her to list her business on google + facebook for ages so she’d get more customers... but the thing was, this lady did not WANT more customers, lmao. She claimed that “if everyone knew what I was up to in here, I’d never have any time to myself. They’d run me out of the place, I just know it. I’d sooner shut down.” And that’s exactly shy she was so shocked to see us in the first place.
So needless to say, Sharryl apparently went behind her back and listed it anyway kdfgdfg.
The latte was 8.50 for a MEDIUM. But I don’t fault her for that at all considering the price of shipping goods up to a place that can only be accessed by air! I’m not sure I’ll ever encounter another (regular) coffee drink that expensive unless I somehow end up making my way back there in the future. I legit start laughing every time I think about this and it’s kind of hard to communicate the humor of the whole thing unless you were there but STILL I really wanted to share anyway
We’re kicking off our Coffee Stories at We Need To Talk Coffee.
In this first episode we introduce Danny, my partner in this project, who shares his personal connection with specialty coffee. From his first encounters with it to how it shaped his way of seeing coffee as more than just a drink, Danny’s story is about curiosity, passion, and building community around a cup.
This series is all about putting faces and voices behind the beans, exploring the journeys that bring us closer to truly meaningful coffee experiences.
Ngopinya di Flatlay in ☕ Biarpun flat Usahakan jgn nge flat yee Hari kamis Semoga dapet yg manis² Foto jepretan oleh @lisstyanaraa yg terpilih dalam featured of the day 👊 Terima kasih ya sudah menggunakan hastag #hptografi 📱#hplissty vivo y17 ☕ #coffeelissty #coffeestories #coffeetography #penikmatkopi #anakkopi #motokopi #hptografi #motokokpakehape Follow aja dulu @hptografi Cara setor, cukup dengan Tag serta Mention @hptografi, dan cantumkan #hptografi atau kirim via Email (cek bio) dengan menyertakan username instagram kamu, caption dan type device. Submit/Partisipasi/Setor foto via Website, kunjungi https://jurnal.hptografi.id/ Buat yg belum terpilih, jangan bersedih. Masih ada hari lain. Tetap semangat dan tetap berkarya bersama @hptografi 😉 https://www.instagram.com/p/CmiVbcZr0nw/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
Ngopinya di Flatlay in ☕ Biarpun flat Usahakan jgn nge flat yee Hari kamis Semoga dapet yg manis² Foto jepretan oleh @lisstyanaraa yg terpilih dalam featured of the day 👊 Terima kasih ya sudah menggunakan hastag #hptografi 📱#hplissty vivo y17 ☕ #coffeelissty #coffeestories #coffeetography #penikmatkopi #anakkopi #motokopi #hptografi #motokokpakehape Follow aja dulu @hptografi Cara setor, cukup dengan Tag serta Mention @hptografi, dan cantumkan #hptografi atau kirim via Email (cek bio) dengan menyertakan username instagram kamu, caption dan type device. Submit/Partisipasi/Setor foto via Website, kunjungi https://jurnal.hptografi.id/ Buat yg belum terpilih, jangan bersedih. Masih ada hari lain. Tetap semangat dan tetap berkarya bersama @hptografi 😉 https://www.instagram.com/p/CmiVbcZr0nw/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
Hello guys, It has been a while since our last update. Thank you all for the DMs. We are okay. Unfortunately, Micky has been sick for a while, and he is the one to blame for not updating Instagram. So here are some quick updates: 1. 101 Coffee Stories will continue, we didn’t reach our funding goal on Kickstarter this time, but we won’t let it affect our mission - empower coffee people in the industry. Currently, our content writer interns are working hard on the book. So don’t worry; you will get this book in 2023. A big shout out to our fantastic interns Nathierah, Emma, and Philip. 2. After almost 2 year’s R&D, our MOMENTEM is finally ready for mass production. In 2023 Spring, we will visit China, check our manufacturer, and do the final QC to ensure that MOMENTEM will be perfect. 3. We recently tried Little Red Book （小红书）in China, surprisingly, we received tremendous support, and within a few days, we sold more than 100 wristbands. This means we can finally make our promise - donating $500 to Adelitas Coffee Farm. Thank you, Fatima @coacoffee for connecting us. 4. As far as we know, our partners Tanty @tjhartono (Indonesia), and Common Ground Cafe @commonground.cafe (Malaysia) will make their donations again soon to help their local coffee community. Great job!!! 5. If you want to do good with us, become a @coffeewristbands charity partner today. If you want to share your coffee stories, check the link in the bio and submit them today. You may have a chance to have your story in our coming book 101 Coffee Stories :) #iamnotabarista #baristaonbike #barista #speicaltycoffee #coffeestories #love #coffeelover #coffeelove #coffeecommunity #colombia #coffeeroaster #coffeefarmer #brewbar #咖啡师 #咖啡 #バリスタ #باريستا #قهوة #コーヒー #café #caffè #Kahve #кофе #бариста #niteliklikahve https://www.instagram.com/p/CmYw-xZrXom/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
