After walking the dogs this morning, we all ended up at the Coffee Garden for some much needed coffee. I will share that I chose this neighborhood rather carefully when I moved to Salt Lake City because I didn't want to also suffer grand culture shock on top of suffering from divorce brain and the terrible shock of leaving my beloved Santa Cruz.
The 9th and 9th neighborhood felt from a distance for hundreds of miles away like it might just be okay. It was accessible. It had funky Victorian homes and bungalows. It had an old movie theatre. It had a coffee shop that served fair trade organic coffee. It had one of the city's best veterinarians for the dogs, a dog park, a fresh foods market, and it was FUNKY. All good things.
While sitting at the Coffee Garden on the patio this morning drinking my coffee I was joined by four other people. All sitting at various other tables. None of us were sitting together. All of us drinking our own fair trade organic coffee. All of us were from Santa Cruz.
Yes, that's right. All five of us were transplants from Santa Cruz. Sitting in Salt Lake. Drinking organic coffee.
None of us knew each other in Santa Cruz. In fact, none of us had met before today. But all of us moved here for the same reason. Because it is cheaper! And all of us chose this neighborhood for the same reason. Because it felt like home. I'll also mention that all of us don't have "day jobs". That there was a reason we were all sitting there at 9:30 a.m. on a Wednesday enjoying the morning and our coffee and the conversation without a worry as to where we needed to be. I venture that had we been in Santa Cruz, we'd all have been doing the exact same thing this morning at Lulu's. Those Santa Cruz habits die hard!
Welcome to Salt Lake City. Where the funk is still funky, the coffee is organic, and the person sitting next to you just might be from Santa Cruz.
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