I am a princess.

I ran out of Chemex coffee filters over a week ago. I trusted the nice people at Peet’s in the Marina to have them in stock the next day, like they said they would. They lied. Then I trusted them to have them in stock the next week, like they said they would. They lied again. Here we have the enormously silly irony of living in a huge metropolis, coupled with access to a huge Internet. I’m certain that somewhere in Los Angeles County, someone is selling Chemex coffee filters. I’m also certain that it’s not Googleable. Nor do I want to pay $9-$12 in shipping and at this point I want my coffee now.

This brings me to my princess and a pea syndrome, as if the above paragraph didn't already. I have an espresso machine. I make a double espresso everyday around 2pm to get me through the rest of the day. We’re Pavlov over here, so Fang also gets a biscuit at 2pm when the espresso machine begins to pour. The word, ‘espresso’ is onomatopoeic, meaning that by the time I have made the espresso, I have mysteriously quaffed the espresso, bypassing the sacred hour that time stands still first thing in the morning, which mean I’ve also bypassed lingering over coffee. I am not a lingerer. I am not an idler. Some part of my body is in motion nearly all day— except for that first 30-45 minutes when I space-out over coffee, stare out the window, look at the dog and think how lucky I am, meditate and otherwise let my mind roam without feeling the need to do something productive. I’ve done French press, but when the decanter broke, I went auto drip. When that decanter broke, I went back to Chemex and I’ve been hooked ever since. But at what price? Today might be the day that I give up, give in and purchase a larger French press, since the 1-cup press I own in case of emergency is plain silly. I used it this morning. Twice. It was okay. It’s funny, I know smells can bring back memories in a flash, but today with my French press coffee, the flavor totally took me back to circa 1987 and my first loft on 19th street in Pilsen. Like, exactly. Crazy. So for the last two weeks, I really haven't been up to snuff because I've been suffering from the lack of my morning coffee ritual.