Happy Accident

As I mentioned in my last post, my friend Sue and I met up this morning at our usual favorite breakfast place, the South Store Cafe. Here's a picture I took of it one spring so that you can see what a funky little place it is.

As it turns out, the South Store Cafe was closed for the week and won't reopen again until after New Year's. Shoot. We were disappointed. I guess some folks take the "holiday" in "holiday season" seriously. This being a small town, we (meaning "I") should have known better.

Sue and I are nothing if not optimistic, however, especially when we meet up for our morning walks. Rain doesn't quell our enthusiasm for one another's company, and so a little change of breakfast plans didn't either. So I say to Sue: "I think there's a place in Newberg called the Blue Moon Cafe". Then I try to get on Yelp to find out if they serve breakfast and to find out if they are open. It's not terribly far to Newberg from here, but it is a winding road over a mountain top, and so I didn't want us to be disappointed again. True to form, I couldn't remember my Yelp password. After trying my fave four passwords, I gave up. We decided if the Blue Moon could meet our needs, we would consume. And if not, we would just walk and forget about food.

So remember what I said about the "Blue Moon Cafe"? As it turns out, the place is called "Coffee Cat". Now, how did I come up with "Blue Moon Cafe", you ask. (Or maybe not, but I'm going to tell you anyway.) For this, you will need to take a perilous journey into the workings of my mind. Bring a flashlight with good batteries.

See beyond the Coffee Cat sign there down the street a ways to the "Blue Trout Gallery"? Not a restaurant, mind you, but it does have the word "blue" in the name. Okay, so far, so good. Do you see any references to the "moon"? Hmmmmmmmmm? Look carefully. This is the only thing I can come up with: I think I saw that cat on the round white sign and interpreted it to be a crescent moon. Makes sense, right? Sure it does! You would have done the same thing, right? Please say yes. It's Christmas Eve Eve....a time to be nice to old people.

So we were happy with this place, and it was open. When we stepped inside, we were delighted to find a funky little place that served simple breakfasts...bagles, breakfast burritos, etc....and coffee. Plenty of coffee. The gal there working the register on the left was just as friendly and welcoming as she could be. We sat beyond that barricade right in the middle of the image.

Beyond was a seating area with old couches, soft cushy chairs, antique furniture and a very narrow and rickety table. I briefly considered dancing on the table...my knee is feeling good these days, you know...but then decided it would be a bad idea. When she brought our bagels, she said she could tell we were good friends because she was enjoying listen to us laugh. It's true that when Sue and I get together, there is a lot of laughing. Sue decided we needed to take a "tourist picture" next to one of the several nutcrackers sitting around the place.

As we were getting ready to leave, some folks came in curious about a drawer in the table where we had been sitting. When we opened it up, we found all sorts of notes that people had left behind with little quips, quotes, and inspirational stuff.

Fun, huh? I was so happy to find this place. It's a little far for Sue to drive, but it's a good emergency back-up place for when our regular meeting place is unexpectedly closed. Mike and I could go down here for a breakfast sometimes too. Newberg is a small town, and there are a few good places to eat, but not many. This place was a find. After our breakfast, we just walked the main drag of Newberg, where there are a lot of fun shops. You can see some of my favorites from a blog post I wrote a while back.

So, I'm back home now, obviously. I'm sure as heck not typing this on my phone. Sadly, I feel a sore throat coming on, and I'm afraid I might be catching a cold. It's unusual for me. I can't even remember the last time I had a cold. One time I read that you can only catch the same cold once. It makes sense to me. I used to catch colds all the time, but as I get older, they seem to catch me less often. I figure I've had most of the colds in the world. Obviously, this is some newcomer that's weaseling its way into my respiratory system. 

I wasn't expecting to be blogging today, but the morning was so much fun I had to tell you about it while it was still fresh in my mind. Here's the thing: I grew up in a military family. My dad deployed to Vietnam three times when I was a teenager. I got a lot of practice writing letters back then...and that was way before the days of email and Facetime. The turn around time for a letter to my dad and his return letter was about a month. And the very few times we ever spoke on any sort of electronic device, it was via ham radio, and thus:

Dad: How are you? Over.

Me: I'm fine. School is good. Over.

Dad: I love you. Over.

Me: I love you too. Over.

Of course during all of this the volunteer ham radio operator (and bless them for their service too!) was listening in to make the switches back and forth when appropriate. No privacy whatsoever.

Anyway...all of that to say that I got a lot of practice writing letters while my dad was in Vietnam. When I'm writing blog posts, I always feel as if I'm writing a letter to good friend. That means you! So, even though I already said it yesterday, have a Merry Christmas. Over.

And here's some good advice, compliments of the drawer at Coffee Cat: