Drinking too much coffee can cause a latte problems.

If your motivational skills are at all like mine, any attempt to study in your bedroom very quickly devolves into a highly scientific rotation of social networking sites and episodes of Glee. In a perfect world, we’d all love to wriggle under our down comforters with a fat Psych textbook and a steaming mug of hot cocoa; but too often, reality renders us more likely to wake with a jolt hours later, the words imprinted on our cheeks rather than in our brains.

This is where Judgmental Strangers in Coffee Shops come into play. Let’s be honest: if you pass someone trolling Facebook in Norris, doesn’t a little part of you say, “Really?” Better to be the pretentious writer hammering away at his Macbook than the slacker sitting in a public venue yet choosing to interact via Internet instead of in person. Don’t even get me started on the clowns plugged in with headphones. First of all, do you really need the volume up high enough that we can hear every word that falls from Tyra's lips? Secondly, it’s not a guilty pleasure if everyone can see you. See, my judgment is holding you accountable to your work already.

Having partaken in a number of Reading Week “coffee crawls” (the most expensive procrastination habit since online shopping), I consider myself something of a connoisseur of Evanston study spots. Taking Norbucks out of the equation (convenient, yes, but have they ever made your drink properly?), here is my take on the top locales to get your study on south of the Arch.

BEST PLACE TO SEE AND BE SEEN: SHERMAN AVENUE STARBUCKS
The Atmosphere: Surprise! All of your friends are caffeine addicts. Be prepared to run into at least ten people you know.
The Menu: Consistent. We all know what Starbucks coffee tastes like: not the most delicious thing to ever grace your taste buds, but it won’t make your eyes roll back into your head as you choke it down. And who can resist a Pumpkin Spice Latte on a crisp fall day?
Free Wi-Fi?: No. But here’s an insider trick: if you sit near the windows, you can pick up a signal from Café Unicorn across the street.
The Bottom Line: Those panoramic windows are great for people watching, but unless you’ve got iron willpower, you’re likely to be distracted by the foot traffic and the homeless man shaking his cup of change. If your goal is to appear to the outside world an effectual, academic individual (while really updating your blog and checking yourself out in your webcam), Sherman Avenue Starbucks is the place to be.

BEST PLACE TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS: BROTHERS K COFFEEHOUSE
The Atmosphere: Your standard (sub)urban coffeeshop, with none of the standard pretention. It’s refreshing to look around and see folks of all ages and walks of life to balance out the usual laptop hunchbacks. The façade is a bit schitzophrenic, with a beachy, hutch-like bathroom area warring against richly painted walls and an apparently crumbling tile floor; but if you can look past Brothers K’s visual shortcomings, the overall effect is pleasant, friendly and relaxed.
The Menu: I die for this coffee: nutty and sweet enough to drink black, with 92-cent refills on the house blend. The food (typical bakery fare, plus quiche and savory pies) garners rave reviews from regulars.
Free Wi-Fi: Yes.
The Bottom Line: Located just off of the Main Street El stop – sounds far, but really a mere 20-minute walk from the sorority quad (or a three-minute intercampus shuttle ride, for the crippled or lazy) – it’s unlikely you’ll come face-to-face with your ex here. A more likely scenario? Running into your professor. Bring a friend; you’ll want company on the walk over, and a bookcase is piled high with old-school board games for when the two of you are ready for a study break.

BEST PLACE TO ACTUALLY DO YOUR HOMEWORK (BUT ONLY IF YOU CARRY CASH): UNICORN CAFÉ
The Atmosphere: Hipster central. No sweats and messy buns here; for Unicorn’s well-dressed patrons, studying is an event.
The Menu: This is the killer for me: I hate Unicorn coffee. And judging by conversations I’ve had, I’m not the only one. The muffins, scones, and breads, however, are baked fresh in the store and quite tasty. So are the “pannini”s, though the blatantly incorrect spelling on the menu is enough to make any neurotic cringe.
Free Wi-Fi?: Yes.
The Bottom Line: They do not take credit cards. They do not take credit cards. Order a (nasty) coffee and then try to pay with a credit card and you will be embarrassed. That being said, people come here to legitimately get work done, and it shows. For a worker-bee environment and an aesthetically pleasing crowd, Unicorn Café takes the productivity prize.

BEST PLACE TO CURL UP ON A RAINY DAY: PANERA BREAD
The Atmosphere: With a giant, L-shaped floor plan and accommodations ranging from bar stools to squishy armchairs, you’re bound to find somewhere in this casual restaurant that’s empty and/or cozy enough to set up shop. The bright lights and color on the walls will keep you feeling focused and wide awake through even the driest textbook chapters.
The Menu: French onion soup in a bread bowl, anyone? I thought so. Panera’s carbo-loaded menu is a breadophile’s dream.
Free Wi-Fi?: Yes.
The Bottom Line: Panera is perfect for all-day study marathons: the food is filling, the refills are free, and I’ve never been hounded by the staff. If you have a hard time tuning out mindless chatter, you might be bothered by the restaurant-style noise level; if not, it’s easy to spend an entire afternoon taking refuge from the elements in this unusually homey chain.

BEST PLACE TO INSTITUTE A REWARD SYSTEM: BARNES & NOBLE CAFÉ
The Atmosphere: Open. Relatively quiet. Not particularly accommodating to laptop users, though—there are only a handful of tables against the wall where the outlets are, and I’ve received lectures from the staff on the safety hazards of snaking my computer cord across the floor.
The Menu: Two words: Cheesecake Factory. Dieters, beware! The pastry case features irresistible goodies ranging from the savory (stuffed pretzels) to the sweet (a wide variety of cupcakes and cheesecake). The coffee brewed is Ye Olde Reliable Starbucks, complete with the elaborate drink menu you know and love.
Free Wi-Fi?: Yes, and newly so. It usually takes my laptop a good ten minutes to connect, but once I get online the network runs just fine.
The Bottom Line: Just ten more pages! Then you can get that red velvet cupcake! Go ahead, you’ve earned it. Blomquist will still be standing when you get back.

BEST PLACE TO TAKE YOUR PROSPIE - ER, HOLD A STUDY GROUP: KAFEIN
The Atmosphere: For a project that requires a lot of chit-chat, you won’t be bothering anyone here. Between the open mic nights and the inevitable slew of prospies, Kafein is the loudest “study” spot in Evanston.
The Menu: Is funny, if you like to read menus. The milkshakes are mouth-watering but expensive. Remember that you have a server to tip for that $5 drink!
Free Wi-Fi?: Yes...but it’s not really free. The menu denotes a minimum $3 charge per customer—meaning that even if you just came to keep a caffeine-dependent friend company, you’re going to have to order your own or pony up the cash.
The Bottom Line: A typical college hangout. The thing is, there’s a fee to “hang out,” and no one who goes here appears to actually be in college.

BEST PLACE TO FINISH UP AN ALL-NIGHTER: EINSTEIN BAGELS
The Atmosphere: A bit crowded in the mornings. Don’t worry, that’ll jog you out of your glassy-eyed stupor as you flip through those flash cards one last time.
The Menu: How many times have you rejoiced over free bagels at a business meeting, only to get stuck with smoked salmon cream cheese because that fool who made the bagel run thought the crowd would want “variety’? Order your bagel exactly how you want it for a change. Bonus: the coffee is delicious.
Free Wi-Fi?: No. But it’s so close by that on a clear day you can tap into Northwestern’s network.
The Bottom Line: For a cheap breakfast when you have to run off to a final in 45 minutes, you can’t beat Einstein’s proximity to campus. Just be warned that the door of girls’ bathroom sticks. I once had to be rescued by a little old lady. Awkward.

BEST PLACE TO TAKE YOURSELF ON A DATE: GLOBE CAFÉ
The Atmosphere: Egg yolk-yellow walls and kitschy pop art make this Hotel Orrington-adjacent feel more like your mom’s kitchen than a full-scale restaurant. Even better, you’re guaranteed to be the only patron under the age of 30. At least you were until I published this article.
The Menu: Reasonably priced café soups, salads and sandwiches. I have yet to be disappointed by an order here.
Free Wi-Fi?: Yes.
The Bottom Line: If you’re the type of person who is comfortable spending time with you, yourself and, uh, you, consider hitting Globe Café for your next lunch outing. A friendly waitstaff, free newspapers and high-backed booths make this one of the most underrated eateries in Evanston—and a stylish place to camp out with a problem set. True, Globe is a bit more expensive than most places on this list, but if you stick to coffee and dessert you can indulge without breaking the bank. Alone time comes at a price, after all.

BEST PLACE TO MISS CAFÉ AMBROSIA: ENIGMA CAFÉ
The Atmosphere: The music is a little too loud. The staff is not quite friendly enough. The paint job and irony-free décor are a little too classy for a college town coffee shop.
The Menu: The coffee is a little too strong. The scone I ordered was a little too bland. And where am I supposed to put my dishes after I eat?
Free WiFi?: Yes.
The Bottom Line: Despite the revamped interior, this place is just a little too not-Café Ambrosia. Perhaps it’ll grow on the Northwestern community over time, but after a lackluster experience I’m not itching to give it another try any time soon.

There are, of course, a number of other options – Peet’s, Argo, Wild Tree and Café Mozart, to name a few – that I have yet to add to my repertoire. If I missed your favorite, by all means chime in with your input!

How do you catch a unique puppy? Unique up on it.

Well. It has happened. My beloved red Keds have bitten the dust at the hands (or, rather, jaws) of the fam's overzealous, pony-sized, apparently teething pooch. Reason #37 why I will never own a dog by choice. A well-behaved betta fish: now there is a model pet.

One day I will spend my entire life in heels, but there's something about early morning classes that's just not conducive to stilettos (though God knows I've tried). With the Keds reduced to housework attire, I find myself in search of a new pair of sneakers with enough style not to be mistaken for gym shoes. If I can't look "done," I at least want to look like I had the foresight to look undone à la mode. Casual need not be synonymous with blah.







They're kind of crazy and ghetto fabulous, right? But then, I'm kind of crazy and ghetto fabulous. It took me a while to decide between the high-top and low-top versions, but I figure if you're going to spring for lavender-and-metallic-silver tennis shoes you might as well do the thing properly.

Am I out of my mind? You tell me.

Baby got back.

So who else thinks backs are, like, outrageously sexy? Having a perfectly toned rear view has become one of my new life goals (she wrote, polishing off a chicken fajita), up there with running a marathon and joining the mile high club.



I'm really into the peekaboo sex appeal of this Silence & Noise dress. What's more, I trekked over to Urban to try it on this afternoon and the material is thick enough to go braless (at least if you're a C cup or below; my apologies to the more curvaceous ladies, I have felt your pain and it scared me onto a treadmill). I'm all for visible bra straps, generally speaking, but they would ruin this. Even Carrie Bradshaw would agree. Any item of clothing that lets me show off my lats but not my high beams is a winner in my book.

Eyes bugging out of head.

Every now and then, you come across a pair of shoes so special that everything else - your Starbucks fetish, your credit card debt, your need for textbooks and/or a home - disappears. This is called a shoe crush, and it is a serious affliction.

Now, I'm no Becky Bloomwood, but I allow myself one extravagant (for a college student in Chicago) pair of shoes per summer, with the qualifier that I have to first maintain a serious shoe crush over at least two months' time. Last year it was a pair of burgundy patent peep-toe Mary Janes that I salivated over on my way into the mall every day for my retail job. As my friends can attest, they were worth every penny - I loved them to death (and subsequently wore them to death - that thing they say about replacing the plastic heel caps before they wear off completely? Yeah, do that.). Rewarding yourself for hard work with something you've consciously saved for is an excellent reminder not to waste money on the trivial.







Maybe I'm still reeling from Dior's black-and-nude duos in the Fall '09 couture show, but when I stumbled across these L.A.M.B. heels this morning I nearly dropped my iPod Touch in the pool. How perfect would they be with everything from a little black dress to pegged boyfriend jeans and a cardigan? With bright colors and basics? With black tights and without? This is it for this summer, folks. These are The Ones. I'm just praying I can still get my hands on them at the end of my two-month waiting period - they sold out in my size on Piperlime within literally an hour. Nordstrom, wait for me!

P.S. Runway reviews are in the works for Jean Paul Gaultier and Valentino. Couture is exhausting. I needed a break.

Fall '09 Couture: Episode V: Givenchy Strikes Back.

If I were a science fiction fanatic, this is where I would make a witty crack about how the house of Givenchy had been hijacked and placed in the hands of a dark overlord from a planet where visible nipples reign supreme and hips are made to look twice their circumference.







Sadly, I've never so much as seen a Star Wars movie. So I have no such crack to make.

Grade: B. Not very wearable, or really very flattering...but memorable, for which I give props. The fusing of Moroccan influences with the space age is something that only a designer with balls could pull off, and I think we can infer that Riccardo Tisci is packin'.

Fall '09 Couture: Elie Saab commits a fashion haute pas.

Oh. Well. This is awkward.









Staging an all-white fashion show six months after Karl Lagerfeld's famously all-white Chanel show at the same venue? No offense, Elie Saab - the clothes are pretty and all, but use your head here. Common sense and imagination.

Grade: C+. I feel bad, because the collection is actually lovely and the pieces will look fine out on their own. But...NO. Who let him do this?! You just don't mess with the Kaiser.

Fall '09 Couture: Lacroix, or the phoenix rising from the ashes.

Poor Christian Lacroix. For all of this season's cutbacks due to a shaky economy, his story is the most heartbreaking. Earlier this year, Lacroix's financial backers laid off all but 12 of the company's workers due to "financial problems" (according to Lacroix in a New York Times interview, a "lack of chemistry" between the business and creative ends of the label). Though Lacroix, a designer known for his folk influences and theatricality, is determined not to see this upset as the end, his Fall '09 production is hailed as his "last couture show" - with everyone but the models working essentially for free.







The collection was small - just 24 looks - with rich fabrics and colors creating a somber Paris-meets-Russia vibe. The shock of blue in the outfit with the white skirt is breathtaking. I may have actually choked.



When the final piece - an ornate yet somehow funereal wedding dress - came down the runway, the show closed to a standing ovation and many, many tears.

Grade: B+. I'll be honest: it's not my cup of tea. But given the circumstances and aims of the collection (integrity to the label, approachability toward new investors), Lacroix put forth some truly admirable work.

Fall '09 Couture: Solid Christian values.

When it comes to spectacle on the runway, nobody puts on a show like Christian Dior's John Galliano - but as we learned from the scaled-back showroom setting of his Fall '09 couture line, Galliano's is a drama that would appear to be innate. Inspired by half-dressed models backstage and the exclusive simplicity of 1950s-era showrooms, the Dior collection still managed to exude an air of life and luxury. Bright sorbet colors, peekaboo lingerie and models dripping in jewels and dramatic chapeaux were the mainstays of a line that reasserted to the world what, exactly, Christian Dior looks like today.



Could I be more obsessed with the styling of these looks? No. No, I could not. Granted, I may be biased by my weaknesses for both nipped waistlines and partial nudity, but vintage flair crossed with risque modernity is what makes this show so unbelievably sexy.





Galliano showed both punchy colors and classic neutrals, which feel no less special despite their lack of pigmentation:







The gowns have an old-school Madonna/Jean Paul Gaultier feel to them, with corseted tops and full, frothy skirts. The center dress is so interesting - the way it stays fitted through the hips, garter straps dangling, instead of flaring out as soon as it hits the waistline? Not quite as universally flattering, perhaps, but certainly innovative. In other news, I think I may need a Dior hat for next year's Kentucky derby.

Grade: A. So Galliano didn't reinvent the wheel - but given the state of the economy, who can blame him? The clothes not only made for an entertaining couture show, but also provided we mere mortals with a wealth of ideas to copy on a budget (who else is ready to go buy sparkly brooches, black slips and nude heels?). The show was cohesive without being stagnant, and the understatedness felt like a choice, not a necessity. Way to take the economic climate and make it work for you.

Fall '09 Couture: Chanel-derly.

Lacy tights, funnel necks, Victorian-style booties, and trains on everything from skirt suits to minidresses were the name of the game for Karl Lagerfeld and the venerable house of Chanel. Anyone who follows pop culture knows that Karl is pretty much off his rocker, so to see a relatively understated couture show from him is shocking in and of itself.



That's not to say the clothes weren't impeccably crafted; as per usual, the suits and dresses are to die for. I adore the pairing of the cameo brooch with the edgy leopard trim in the suit on the left. Upturned pockets give shape to a basic silver shift in the middle photograph, and the subtle luxuriousness of jeweled embellishments against winter-white wool (on the right) is about as elegant as it comes.

There were a few LBDs that made my heart stop beating...



...And a couple of Oscar-worthy gowns that almost made me want to become an actress again.



(I'll wear one to my book party.)

Another staple of the collection was what can only be described as high-fashion algae.



Wild, right? And by wild, I mean that if I saw it growing in my closet, I'd be concerned. So see? It's okay. The nutty Karl we know and love is still in there. And just wait, it gets better:



Grade: B-. Because I hold Chanel to a very high standard. Sorry, Lagerfeld - you did it to yourself.

Fall '09 Couture: The devil wears Armani.

In my career fantasies, where I am a Miranda Priestley-esque 50-year-old woman running a powerhouse fashion corporation in not-quite-work-appropriate clothing (and eating bluefin tuna instead of steak)...I am wearing Fall '09 Armani Privé.





My job naturally also demands that I attend many black-tie affairs, for which I don sweeping couture gowns that I look ravishing in despite my age.



One thing that isn't part of my fantasy: nude jumpsuits. Even if they are hand-beaded.



Grade: A-. You lost a fraction of a point for the jumpsuits, Giorgio, but your seamless 1940s-gone-rock 'n' roll collection has this fashionista screaming "GET ME ARMANI!"