Little sleep. That feeling the next day – the random face pain, strained eyes, sometimes even pain in the joints. Despite this feeling being overall bad, there’s something bittersweet about it to me. I remember feeling this way almost every day of high school. Little sleep mostly due to bad habits and time wasting, hence late-night studying. But even with that, I was winning. My life fell into place, I tried my best when it most mattered. I slayed. And these mornings with little sleep remind me of those days. Finally, and thankfully, I’m starting to feel like a winner again. 

I’m somewhat OCD about cleanliness. I usually make it to bed later than planned because I get caught up cleaning stuff in the kitchen or organizing the stack of mail on my desk or taking out the trash and recycling. The possibilities are endless. And that’s the key: endless. These menial tasks, endless. Sleep is important, so tonight I left dishes in the sink, dirty pots on the stove, lunch unpacked, and papers all over the desk. There will be no shortage of these things for the rest of my my life, so why stress tonight? Sleep. 

For a while now, I’ve felt that my coffee game has plateaued. I’m nearly done with my 7th box of 100 Chemex filters, so I’ve practiced this pour over art about 700 times now over the past four years. I have all the equipment: Chemex and it’s filters, kitchen scale, gooseneck kettle. I’m not getting much better from each pour I do nowadays (marginal diminishing returns…oh boy #econ). But I see a new light shining on my coffee world – the bean itself. For years now I’ve constricted myself to locally roasted coffee that is easily accessible and freshly roasted. In Philly, it was solely La Colombe. In Atlanta, it’s mostly been Brash. Both are dear to me, especially La Colombe, but I admit that neither are the best at roasting beans. Today I had a great espresso shot at Chrome Yellow, made from Stumptown’s hair bender blend. It’s motivated me again to go out of my way and try new beans. Even if it entails dropping some extra money to cover shipping costs, it’s worth it. There’s plenty of good coffee roasters out there, and sadly I’ll never get to visit them all. But at least I can get some of their stuff sent to my home. Not a bad compromise! 

I love good fried chicken. Most fried chicken is pretty mediocre, so I don’t even bother indulging in it unless I know for sure that I’m about to eat something novel. The best I’ve ever had was in Philly at a shop called Federal Donuts. That’s right, donuts and fried chicken. And honestly I’d say that the chicken is more noteworthy here than the donuts. I want to recreate such high caliber fried chicken at home, so I put the plan into motion today. 5 drumsticks and 5 thighs, buttermilk brine. The meat will soak in buttermilk overnight, then tossed in flour with some spices, then fried. Leggo.

Summer storms in Atlanta. It rains every day without fail, often at the most random times too. It’ll be clear, blue skies one minute, then dark clouds rolling through the next minute. It’ll rain furiously for about 15 minutes, totally wrecking havoc on traffic and sometimes even electricity. Then a few minutes later, sunny and clear again. Most Saturday mornings I go to the basketball courts in my neighborhood to practice that jumper and my handles, but sadly not today. Can’t wait for summertime to pass – the fall, winter, and spring are just heavenly here. It’ll be great. 

One of the best feelings is successfully packing lunch. It’s so hard to be disciplined to pack lunch for work, and the alternative of buying lunch regularly isn’t so great. Gotta remember to pack lunch in the evening for the next day. Today I had some streamed broccoli and baked chicken that I made last night. I keep a real plate and real utensils at my desk to give lunch a real feel. Packing lunch makes me feel like I have a grip on life. 

Countless distractions, pointless meetings, random breaks. It’s easy to accomplish quite literally nothing in a given day at work. I feel I’m most productive and focused at work after 5pm. Everyone is gone, no distractions, shirt gradually gets untucked, sometimes even playing music aloud too. I had one of those evenings tonight, going hard from 5pm to 7pm. Afterward I meet up with the fam at a great burger spot. I had a double stack with roasted mushrooms and grilled onions, topped with a fried egg. That runny yolk takes it to another level. 

After trying (and still trying) to write a short story of my own, I have a newfound appreciation for writers. In my youth, I didn’t take reading and writing seriously – I’d rather just watch tv or play video games. Looking back, I’m shocked that I even made it this far in life. Better late than never I suppose. I’m still working through Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth, very weighty themes that deserve to be digested slowly and consciously. But I’ve also started Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray,  and it’s excellent thus far! 

Monday night. Kickin’ it with the homies, having dope Mexicanfood at Tacos Veloz on Buford highway, and bringing out the basic high school girls inside us to try 8 Degrees Fahrenheit – a new, trendy ice cream bar that freezes cream into a sheet and scrapes it up into rolled strips. Definitely should have passed on that ice cream, not at all living up to the hype. But the Mexican food is lit as always. Major key to life: make the weeknights a little more exciting. 

I stayed in most of the day, doing things around the house. Sweeping floors, rearranging furniture, doing laundry, and even some cooking. That’s a bit too productive for a Sunday, so I went on a little solo adventure this evening. Butter & Cream at Decatur Square. Super dope ice cream shop in Decatur, a town just a few miles east of Atlanta. I treated myself to the “OG Goodness” flavor – brown sugar ice cream base mixed with bits of butter cake. Not totally positive what is meant by butter cake, but I’m down with butter and cannot refuse cake, so this is the way to go. I slowly enjoyed a cup of OG Goodness while walking through Decatur Square, 92 degrees outside, countless folks catching Pokemon.