It is the middle of a run-of-the-mill 5-day work week, which absolutely is “hump day” for the FTE. While students get a spring break next week, life generally remains the same in Career Development and other student support offices on college campuses. As a result, I am praising God for a much-needed mid-week day in Seattle for meetings, catching up with colleagues, and computer work in a different place than my office.

Cafe Solstice is my go-to coffee shop on the UW campus. It is spacious, hip, and buzzing with students. It is the stomping grounds of so many students that it is often tough to find a spot to set down roots and work for a few hours, but finals week is a great time to do so.

The coffee here is well above average. According to a Yelp review, they use Lighthouse Coffee, also found at Metro on the UW Tacoma campus. The prices are pretty standard (3.5 for a medium-size latte, etc.). The music is usually pretty chill, although they just started BLASTING some bass-heavy electronica confusion, which is certainly going to cut this post short.

The ambiance is great for me as I enjoy doing work in coffee shops that are full of people doing the same thing. Wooden floors and tables making up the entire space, which gets two thumbs up from me. Something about rustic wood makes me feel comfortable and relaxed; I’m sure there are studies on this.

There is not much better than a mid-week coffee shop break. I get extremely distracted and stale in the office all week and often need to block out a few hours away from student appointments to take care of some business, which has happened more effectively than usual today. I can feel today’s refresher removing some to-dos from the list and freeing space for creative thought the rest of the week.