a few hours at mishka's

So....my resolution to blog every day until the end of the year through december didn't really last that long, wasn't quite up to @elemveee's incredible one-photo-a-day stamina that's been an inspiration these past few months. Perhaps things will 'resolve' themselves when the new year comes.

But it's a little early for that kind of talk right now. On the flip side, I've been tempted to continue my brief little foray into the world of Yelp with some reviews of familiar places over the past few weeks, and maybe that, too, will come. But it's hard when you're sitting in places that are so layered with memories, to see them as objectively (or, at least, as objects) as you do when you're somewhere less familiar.

Which brings us to today, Christmas Eve, at Mishka's Café in Davis, along with the realization that the charger for this computer may be sitting 90 miles away in Berkeley...let's see if we have enough battery to finish this post after things of more consequence...

2:40pm. Now, a few hours later, after having sent off a job application and while digging in for another, I feel like I'm finally settling into this place. Some big band and decidedly old music on an appropriately low-res sound system underlines all the conversation and activity behind the bar. And there is conversation, and there is activity: even though classes have ended and families are gathering for the holiday, there is a group of students with books up on stands, vigorously debating this and that enzyme group. Two or three computer users (geeks) like me sit facing the wall, plugged in and logged on, comfortable until the next bathroom break. I have my back to the wall, facing the bar and numerous other tables that populate the front, middle, and more internal spaces that are marked out by the patterns of tables and what looks to be a giant cream separator in the middle of the room. The cappuccinos have been nice (I'm on my second) and I can't complain about the prices, having come from Berkeley and San Francisco, where it seems like they're even trying to make money on the cream cheese that they sell with the bagels...

as the landing gear retract for flight...

Sitting in SOMA's Epicenter cafe and for whatever reason was moved to write my 2nd review on Yelp. I thought about cut-and-pasting it here, but what would be the point of that? Can a Yelp review capture the sultry, moody, evolving ebb and flow of a moment in a cafe? Should it be rated by the life and voices and motions and postures and chewing sounds and laughter of the people who sit, mill, stand, work, talk in a given window of time? While the air recycles at 30,000 feet?

Can a blog post?



Maybe, and maybe not.