Sometime you just have to hold your head up high, blink away the tears and say good-bye.

Human's are creatures of habit. We carve out our daily routines, the friends we see, and the places we patron. It is with great sorrow that I have to inform all of you (all two followers) that the Bean Baskette Coffee Shop is closing.

Sigh.

If any of you know me, the Bean was my place to go to just take a break. It was essentially my Cheers. They'll serve you coffee, fix you a reasonably priced breakfast, name a sandwich after you, and pick on you like your family. I consider David and Mary Lin, the owners, very much like family. Hearing that they have to shut their doors is like working through the grieving process and only getting to the disbelief phase.

It wasn't unusual to steal someone's phone and change their facebook status to read something like: "I enjoy dressing up in women's clothes and riding horses bareback." It was especially funny when it was a guy's status. They would always put the phone back as if it had never been touched. Fortunately, I always held on to my phone. Partly because I have a lot of friends on facebook and I don't want to confuse them with a status like that.

The Bean would go through phases of moving furniture, changing the menu, adding wine, taking wine away and then adding it back again, opening for dinner, not opening for dinner, and so on. All of us regulars didn't mind. We all grew to know the eccentricity of having been a part of the Bean family for a while. Our Bean Baskette wasn't just David and Mary Lin, it was all of us who made it what it is.

My steady beacon of coffee and wine all started as a part of my daily routine after I returned from maternity leave from having my first child (the wine came later). It was a few month after the Bean opened. I wasn't even a coffee drinker at the time. The Bean was a place of convenience for breakfast after the gym and before work and sometimes for lunch. During this time, the same nods to the familiar faces became light conversation. Light conversation became friendship. We all became close: celebrating birthdays, planning parties together, training for 1/2 marathons that I never ran (I caught a cold okay. Don't judge).

The Bean is not just a coffee shop it is one of the neo-Evans landmarks. It is a safe haven from a shitty work environment or a break from boring Saturday breakfast. It is a place where you hate to write a letter of recommendation for Ben, because it means he won't work there any more.

Melodramatic? Yes, but it feels as though we are all being broken up with by circumstances that are out of the Bean's control. It sucks.

In all reality, it pains me to think of the heartbreak that David and Mary Lin are feeling. Then add all of our whining to increase the guilt. If I could fix this I would. Until then I'll enjoy the next few weeks getting my free wi-fi, cup of joe with a side of sarcasm and nostalgia, and speak fondly of the memories and friends that have been made at the Bean. I attribute it all it's greatness to the the hard work of David and Mary Lin. Thank you both.