Write This

by Cecilie E. Roaldset

"Write This" is a new column that will be dedicated to where we write, and why. Uncapped will accept submissions for the Write This column in the summer zine starting at the beginning of April, so grab your pen/laptop and send 350 words telling us where "your room" is to me at hennenorsk@yahoo.com. It can be anywhere you feel that you write the best, most creative work; non-traditional places greatly welcomed.

Deco Lamps and Oak Tables

The first time I entered Uptown Espresso to write, I held a freshly made smoothie in backpack and my laptop. It was a wondrous summer day and I was working on a brochure for a local non-profit. I found a corner table with a cool deco lamp, pulled out my laptop, and went to work.

The Uptown Espresso location on 4th and Vine is my favorite deadline-looming place to write. I discovered it in the fall of 2001 when I was invited to come to a Writergrrls Zine meeting. Once I discovered it, I would escape my drama-filled house in Magnolia to sit and read the New York Times, watching people come and go to the Seattle Center. The Uptown Espresso in Belltown is my favorite haunt because of the bright big windows and large oak tables. The place is decorated with art deco lamps, smooth tables, and comfortable chairs, and is located next to the famous grass-roots record label.

Uptown Espresso has a potpourri of everything that is Seattle. It has plenty of outlets for the laptop writer and pay-as-you-go WiFi. Uptown usually has un-intrusive music on and the baristas will lower the volume if it’s too loud. The baristas also have no issue if you bring in food, and loiter way past when you finish your coffee. As a writer who gets easily distracted, I find the atmosphere great. I finished my brochure for the non-profit and have ended up meeting several useful connections while working there—I ended up doing book keeping for a small business owner on Vashon Island, have become to connected to other Internet resources, and have met some great people.

The baristas in this Uptown are the best in the city; they make excellent coffee and keep the atmosphere light. I favor this Uptown over all their other locations, because you can overtake a table not having to worry about elbows, thinking out loud, or wondering if someone is reading your screen over your shoulder. To me, this Uptown is an extension of my own living room, no phone included, and nothing but the words on my screen to focus on.

Cecilie Roaldset is a regular open mic poet, an observer of life, and has native connections to Scandinavia. She is currently working as a grant writer for a non-profit organization and has a poetry portfolio and a novel in progress.