Tag: coffee

Panda Expresso: The Almighty Newspaper Lives On

Published on by hellosamanthadear11 Comments

Ahhh…an espresso-rich iced mocha, warm weather, and diving into old articles from The New York Times. 😌☕️💕 (Oh, and re-reading my favorite book about the Berlin Wall for the 4th time now!)

Recently, I came across an awesome offer from The New York Times: for just $4/month for a year, I could have digital access to their newspaper vault, all in its original context! (For a history nerd, this was like finding the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow). My little fingers couldn’t subscribe fast enough!

Some say that newspapers are a thing of the past. Not so! I have newspapers to thank for this new hobby of mine, which is, searching the NYT archives for articles about the Berlin Wall when it was still standing! It’s feeding my Cold War obsession and I’m actually learning a lot.

I’m finding tons of articles and little snippets about the courageous people who escaped or attempted to escape over the Wall. My favorite snippet is about the border guard who literally just walked off from his duty post and crossed the line into West Berlin without any of his fellow guards noticing…

And my other favorite article, of course, is about the night the Berlin Wall came down, pictured above! I took a screenshot of how the newspaper looks in the archive. So cool!

I was just a few weeks shy of being 2 years old when the Berlin Wall fell, so I was too busy drooling all over myself and probably drooling all over the carpet to take note of international happenings. But now? I have the whole world at my fingertips, that can take me straight to the past in one click. And for that, I’m soooo thankful for today’s technology! 😌

Secondly, I now have panda hair clips!!! 🐼💕 They were custom-made for me by a really sweet seller on Etsy, and I couldn’t be happier with them! IS IT CHEESY THAT I WENT TO GET MYSELF PANDA EXPRESS WEARING THESE? 😆

See ya next time!! 💕

Desert Time

Published on by hellosamanthadear11 Comments

Not to be confused with dessert time, but it also applies to this post just the same because of my delicious FRAPPUCINO. ☕️💕

I googled whether or not the area of California I live in is considered somewhat of a desert and I learned: “The Central Valley has a hot Mediterranean climate in the north; the southerly parts of the region are dry and categorized as desert.” Well, I live in the CENTRAL Central Valley, so we get the best of both worlds: lush vegetation AND desert-like regions, depending on the time of year! 🌴🌺

Right now it’s very dry, and I love that. I’m drawn to the desert look, and I had the pleasure of walking around this beautiful new housing development called Tesoro Viejo on the outskirts of Fresno, equipped with a super cool coffee shop I’ve been to before and was excited to go back to with my friend!! This is my first time going to sit on a patio somewhere since the quarantine began, so I was quite happy. ☕️

I definitely frolicked around and I looked just like this happy puppy

This coffee shop, called Axis, is amazing with a beautiful patio area. I loved the see-through banners placed on the fence (my view from the table).

I definitely felt like I was in a desert, when I happened upon these little green bushes spaced out between each other on the ground. Something about the warm, dirt tones of a desert landscape ignites the imagination for me!

This fun skirt is actually my mom’s, handed down to me. I had it cut (it used to be ankle length) and hemmed. Yeah! 💜💕 I’m glad I wore this bright skirt, as it stood out against the scenery today.

See ya next time!