June 29, 2002
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Yes, when you’re in a fancy motel room at 1am and you can’t sleep, sometimes you need to make up a stupid story about the bath accoutrements.
That motel was in Cheyenne, Wyoming, by the way. And the next morning I got up and went to find a decent latte. I found a Starbucks, but I wanted to find some local running a drive-through stand.
What I found was Zen’s Bistro, which has a drive through for espresso drinks. I neglected to take a picture of the place, but I should have. In a bland cow town in southwestern Wyoming, this place was painted bright blue with yellow and purple accents. Red Christmas lights were strung haphazardly in the windows. It had chunks of mannequin dangling from the eaves. My kind of place. The kicker: They serve Seattle’s Best Coffee, which is a brand from Vashon, WA (which is near Seattle, which is why the name is funny).
I go to the drive-thru and a lovely petite young woman with that harsh, somewhat defensive look women sometimes have in the American west helped me get a soy latte. While she was working the espresso machine, a tall young man with a dazed look on his face came up to the window and said:
“So where in Washington? I saw the license plates on your car.”
“Seattle.”
“Yah? What brings you around? Going to Yellowstone?”
“Naw. Going to Boulder and then Texas.”
More small talk ensued. I hate small talk. Then he told me:
“I used to live in Tacoma. Until I moved to THIS SHITHOLE.”
I’ve capitalized ‘this shithole’ because that’s how he said it.
“Why did you move here from Tacoma?”
“To get away from the drugs. I’ll be six months sober in a week, after living here for three years.”
“Well, congratulations.”
“But I do miss that mountain.”
Puzzled look.
“Mount Rainier. Living in Tacoma, I’d look east, and there’d be the mountain. It’s all flat and endless here. I want to move back, and I think I’ll try in about six more months. Have to save up.”
Jokingly: “Moving back for the drugs?”
“Heh. No. Just miss the mountain and the green trees. And to get away from this SHITHOLE.”
My latte was ready at this point. I exchanged money for it. I wished him luck and gave a big tip.
Comments (5)
That was YOU?!?!?! hehe. I still have WA plates on my car…even though I’ve lived here since Dec. I’m from Seattle too…wish I could go back. It was awesome!
~Erin_Was_Braless_In_Seattle!!
No matter where you move to, you take YOU with you. I wish that guy luck in finding a place that isn’t a SHITHOLE.
Your bathroom fable, by the way, was sooooo Julius Caesar! You should the whole canon of Shakespeare’s worx with bathroom implements. I can be your casting agent.
Like Tacoma is NOT a SHITHOLE?!? (Yeah. The guy must have been on drugs when he lived there.)
Never been to Tacoma, nor THE SHITHOLE, but hmm… I’m curious to see what’s all in a shithole (besides drugs and shit, of course).
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