Coffee Anniversary Brew Baby

When I smell fresh coffee grounds I always associate the smell with my childhood friend’s house. His parents were always brewing some darn good java. They’d dump the grinds in their compost bin located under their kitchen sink. They were composting in the early 80s. So cool.
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My wife and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary over the weekend. By celebrating I mean we went to see a play. We watched The Diary of Anne Frank. I wouldn’t have thought the play would be all that uplifting, but it was. Danny Devito’s daughter, Lucy, plays Anne and did a wonderful job. I haven’t read the book, but now I want to. The first act had lots of humorous moments as we learned about the blossoming teenager. The second act was more grim, but still damn poignant. I have to remind myself to go see plays more often.

I did have to watch myself. I spied people with cell phones on during the play. The mom and daughter in the row behind me were whispering the entire time. The lady sitting to my right, not my wife, loudly cracked her knuckles a few times. Going to the theatre isn’t all that different from going to the the cinema, distraction wise. I kept myself in check. I learned in my acting classes to ignore those body ticks. I say acting class as if it was recent, but eighth grade was about 20+ years for me.
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The smell of a roasting plant or brewery (sort of a burning industrial smell) will always live in my head as Portland, Oregon. I rented a small studio in Northwest Portland near a brewery and when I went outside each day, a waft of the brewery engulfed me. I loved it and it made me feel at home.
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For those keeping score at home: our daughter will be 9 months old in a week. She’s very close to crawling, but not quite there yet. She says words that sound like dadda and momma, but doesn’t assign a meaning to them at this time. She can wave. She can furrow her eyebrow and then make up for it with a silly one-toothed grin. Although she can’t walk, she can text message like nobody’s business. Consider yourself warned. She’s got more hair on her head these days and when said hair is wet, it’s curly. Someone asked me her favorite toy and I’d have to say it’s her pacifier or these blocks she likes to bang together. We were told by her daycare teacher that she clapped today. Now I can tell her jokes and hope she laughs and claps at her dad.