Waking the Pagan Coffee Freak? My adoration of coffee shops goes back to 1992. I think that puts us in the second wave of coffee snobbery. This was still a time when the big chain coffee shops had not yet landed in most of our towns. We sought out little hole in the wall shops that played the music we liked or happened to be next to the music shop, or open late enough to hang in before we went to listen to a new band play. This is when I began to dream of creating my own publishing company called Pagan Coffee Freak.

Back then, I spent my hours escaping the campus and plunking down at Brew Note coffee shop, sitting beneath the art often created by artist friends, wrapped in layers of thrifted clothes, tights and combat boots. Scooping up my bottomless cup of bold coffee, I would settle at a table for hours, preferably in the corner, perched in a window that must have once been a display platform.

Was I doing my homework? No…no, no, don’t be silly. I journaled endlessly. Listening to early grunge music and scribbling out all my thoughts of life. I taped pictures and scraps from magazines, postcards and odd bits into those journals and wrote. It was how I sorted myself out.

The coffee shop offered food sometimes. They whipped up a meal of the day and that was the offering. It was inexpensive and always delicious and sometimes the best sustenance I had all week.

As a Theatre Arts major, with a minor in English I was living the beatnik starving artist wave. Oh, I had a great plan going into college…I was going to double major in English and Theatre and I would also pick up Secondary Ed. The plan was to write books, teach English and coach Theatre. Actually, no. That was never the true plan. And that quickly became obvious when I tried my first moment of student teaching and realized I didn’t want to teach. I truly just wanted to write books and star in plays. Pretty simple.

Theatre was my life for a few years, acting and singing to make a living, moving around with the theatre companies I was cast in and dwelling in the free housing that came with the gig. I became enamored by the cute towns where I landed to perform at repertory theatres. Since I was raised in a tourist town, every tourist town felt like home.

So, moving, boys, life as a young human…blah blah blah…more of those tales to come.

The point is…coffee shops.

Clearly, I feel the most at home in a coffee shop. The smells, the varying vibes, the noises. I have spent all these years exploring coffee shops and doodling and journaling in them. And now I want to bring this feel to you, wherever you are.

As I explore and revisit more shops, the doodles and ponders will land here in this blog. I hope to bring a bit of whimsy and silliness to your world, as well as the occasional deep ponder. There will be doodles and joy monsters and spilled coffee and maybe some bean recommendations along the way. It is exciting to be waking the Pagan Coffee Freak again!

Awesome to meet you, let’s see where we go!

ZB