Coffee's not my cup of tea

I do miss writing in coffee shops, though—which is why, when Atlas and Alice put out a call for micros for their special GLOBAL PANDEMIC x THE THING I TOOK FOR GRANTED issue, I knew exactly what to write about. They were kind enough to publish my first-ever creative nonfiction piece “I don’t miss coffee, but” earlier this week.

Fun fact: I really did overhear Russian language lessons once when I was writing at Finom, my favorite neighborhood cafe. Only the tutor was trying to teach his female student how to say things like, “What a cool sports car”—I think he was hitting on her? Badly? It was bizarre.

Can’t wait until this pandemic is over and I can write somewhere besides my own apartment again. I doubt things will ever go back to normal—and honestly, there are many aspects of our society that shouldn’t go back to normal—but hopefully coffee shops will come back to us one day.