Coffee with the Wicked Witch of the West

My coffee preference of choice is a grande double cupped caramel macchiato, often with an extra shot of espresso, from Starbucks.  Yeah I know, it sounds like a douche bag drink and I know they cost almost $5, but I LOVE them.  I’ve even managed to burn through not one but two of my own espresso machines.  That’s right; I convinced one of the workers at my favorite Starbucks to teach me how to make my very own caramel macchiatos and yes they are just as yummy. *drool*

When I accompanied Dustin on his business trip to Portland, Oregon we went to the zoo and the most magical place that I had ever been to: Powell’s City of Books.  A massive new and used bookstore that occupies an entire city block and has over 68,000 square feet of

bookness, complete with a rare book room (which unfortunately was closed during our visit, but we still got to peak through the windows) :)  Best place EVER! I could have probably spent our entire trip in that one store and still not have made it through to my satisfaction.  Rare, out of print, first editions, signed by author, hardcover, paperback, nicely bound, you name it, it was there.  I even found myself getting a little overwhelmed when we came across the signed by Christopher Paolini Eragon; Eldest first editions (which I might add were in my price range unlike the Harry Potter set of the same caliber, which I fondled for a good 10 minutes) and I still kick myself every day for not buying them (mine aren’t signed and they definitely aren’t first editions), but I guess that’s what I get for being cheap.

Check out time from our hotel was 11 am and Dustin wasn’t finished work for the day until 4 o’clock. I spent those wonderful 5 hours sitting in the Starbucks around the corner from our hotel with $20 and the book that I was reading at the time.  It was my first run through of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, which has since made it very close to the top of my list of favorites.  Since being published in 1995, Wicked has been successfully preformed as a Broadway musical, which I would quite enjoy being able to see one day, and Mr. Maguire has successfully followed this book up with two additional books, Son of a Witch and A Lion Among Men, which dive even deeper into the wonderful land of Oz.  Wicked is by far the book I suggest the most to other people as it has a little bit of everything in it, politics, drama, romance, murder, mystery, talking goats, magic, and an untraditional point of view on a classic.  Needless to say, even though I still kick myself for not buying those signed, first editions, I did quite enjoy having several of my favorite coffees with Elphaba and her story.