Well, there's a squirrel or two living in the vehicle that might have been a coffee truck. But that's not what we mean by bio-diversity today!
Without going in to too many explanations or apologies, there are some ever-changing changes to the ever-changing plan. Eh, it's the ecosystem of life. Sometimes the deer eat your garden. Throw what's left on the compost heap and sooner or later you'll have good soil.
On June 1st, Take This Cup coffee will be brewing at the White Memorial Bio Blitz. You can read all about this exciting all-night biology convention on my friend Jamie Fisher's blog : www.whitememorialbioblitz.blogspot.com. They will actually be counting every bug, bird and beaver that sets foot, feeler or feather on White Memorial for a 24 hour period. I will be setting up on day 2 of the event, when all the scientists are good and delirious and ready for a great cup of coffee.
More details to follow..... but here's one important one. I've got to have a good run-through, and I'm going to do it in my trusty backyard. I would love to invite all of you who have so kindly and generously purchased coffee cards to come and use them at the .... shall we call it a Grand Opening or a Dress Rehearsal? The Grand Rehearsal, Sunday May 26th in the merry morning hours.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Push Go
When I called my sister (and Take this Cup Motivational and Spacial Design Consultant) to vent about the stress of money and the fear of spending any of the money raised over the past months for the coffee truck dream, she offered many words of wisdom and comfort and encouragement, not the least of which was "We want you to make us coffee." I wrote it on a post-it note and stuck it on the post-it note wall. True, there is a galactic spiral of post-it notes on the wall now- things that must be done, fun and not-so-much, necessary and ridiculous, but this one stands out. I suppose it can't be my mission statement, but it's definitely my mission post-it.
Thanks to the very thorough and extraordinarily generous session with my latest Consultants (Automotive and All-Things-Camper Consultants) I have learned where to spray the WD40. Now, I've said in many a cover letter that I'm a fast learner and a hard worker, and I don't think I was lying, but when I consider this from the position of being my own boss, it's tough not to be a little impatient. I've looked carefully at the pictures and crawled around under the wheels a little bit, and listened very carefully to all of my consultants, but even the widest view of the bigger picture of how it all works is a bit fuzzy to me... I can't seem to get very far past the simple understanding that when you step on the brake pedal the vehicle should stop.
Yesterday I went to try the wares of a new shop in town- an antique store with an espresso bar. It happens to be in a space that I fell a little bit in love with (had even talked pretty extensively with the landlord and brought a friend and Carpentry and Design Consultant to view the space.) It's tough not to be a touch bitter about seeing someone else set up in the space I had wanted, but the owner and manager are both genuinely nice people. (I mean this- they gave me a free cup of coffee and chatted with me without seeming to even notice my local-yokel-iness. These are gentlemen with all the class of New York with all the salt-of-the-earthness of rural New England. These are people we are priveleged to have in town.)
The shop is also lovely. It's not set up the way I would have done it, but it is charming and inviting. The espresso bar is clearly a secondary operation, to the extent that it makes sense that they have a spaceship, push-button machine that blasts out a latte without the pesky grinding of espresso beans or steaming of milk. (To be fair, it's not the worst- there are sadly some machines around that somehow get away with mixing powder and hot water together when you push the button that says "cappuccino.") I don't feel like letting them all the way off of the hook, since it would be infinitely better to have some kind of authentic espresso preparation (wouldn't it be awesome to have an espresso made from an antique machine??,) but that's not their real business. Much like mine is not auto mechanics. I press the brake pedal, they press the button that says "latte."
You definitely do not want me to fix your car. You want me to make you coffee.
Thanks to the very thorough and extraordinarily generous session with my latest Consultants (Automotive and All-Things-Camper Consultants) I have learned where to spray the WD40. Now, I've said in many a cover letter that I'm a fast learner and a hard worker, and I don't think I was lying, but when I consider this from the position of being my own boss, it's tough not to be a little impatient. I've looked carefully at the pictures and crawled around under the wheels a little bit, and listened very carefully to all of my consultants, but even the widest view of the bigger picture of how it all works is a bit fuzzy to me... I can't seem to get very far past the simple understanding that when you step on the brake pedal the vehicle should stop.
Yesterday I went to try the wares of a new shop in town- an antique store with an espresso bar. It happens to be in a space that I fell a little bit in love with (had even talked pretty extensively with the landlord and brought a friend and Carpentry and Design Consultant to view the space.) It's tough not to be a touch bitter about seeing someone else set up in the space I had wanted, but the owner and manager are both genuinely nice people. (I mean this- they gave me a free cup of coffee and chatted with me without seeming to even notice my local-yokel-iness. These are gentlemen with all the class of New York with all the salt-of-the-earthness of rural New England. These are people we are priveleged to have in town.)
The shop is also lovely. It's not set up the way I would have done it, but it is charming and inviting. The espresso bar is clearly a secondary operation, to the extent that it makes sense that they have a spaceship, push-button machine that blasts out a latte without the pesky grinding of espresso beans or steaming of milk. (To be fair, it's not the worst- there are sadly some machines around that somehow get away with mixing powder and hot water together when you push the button that says "cappuccino.") I don't feel like letting them all the way off of the hook, since it would be infinitely better to have some kind of authentic espresso preparation (wouldn't it be awesome to have an espresso made from an antique machine??,) but that's not their real business. Much like mine is not auto mechanics. I press the brake pedal, they press the button that says "latte."
You definitely do not want me to fix your car. You want me to make you coffee.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Happy Thanksgiving
I wake up Thanksgiving morning with eyebrows scrunched over a sad and confusing dream, a slight hangover, and Bruno Mars "I Think I Wanna Marry You" playing in my head, and I have a revelation.
The dream was of my parents having a ninth child (we don't need to go in to the whole explanation of how bizarre that is right now), whose birth I missed, but I read in the morning paper that he only lived long enough to look very happily at his parents.
The hangover is from a single beer and a conversation with my sister (Take this Cup Motivational and Spatial Design Consultant) about life being basically unfair and way, way too much work.
Bruno Mars came along in a video link the other day, sent to me by my good friend (and Take this Cup Marketing and Graphic Design Consultant) of a tear-jerking-from-even-the-biggest-jerk marriage proposal in which all of the friends and family of a couple (including a marching band and some friends on Skype) come out to dance and lip-synch along. Of course I cried. At the time I thought "a pox on these videos until late February, or I'll never survive!" And I thought it was too much for me because it made me feel like a spinster.
But here's the truth.
The video makes you cry (yes, it will make You cry) not because two people are getting married, but because a whole community of people love them so much that they spent hours putting together a synchronized dance for an audience of one. And because they happily believe in love.
Life is unfair, and it will give you a hangover. You will have to work and work and work, and you might lose everything. Or you might have everything you could possibly want and still be unhappy. But I realize this morning that the random unfairness of life has worked in my favor far more often than not. Being born itself, even for a minute, is an incredible gift.
I taught a Conversational English class in Korea in which the topic one day was what you would do with a month left to live on Earth. One student said "Everyone, write." I teacherly wrote on the board "I would write letters to everyone." Underneath I wrote "I'm sorry for.... Thank you for...." He stopped me and said something I don't think I'll ever forget. "Not sorry, just thank you."
There's no time to edit now- it's time to clean up and get the green beans and salad ready and celebrate this wonderful holiday. I won't list all of the things I have to be thankful for, except for you. Thanks for reading my blog. Thanks for believing in my dream.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQSZbQWuSKs&feature=fvwrel
The dream was of my parents having a ninth child (we don't need to go in to the whole explanation of how bizarre that is right now), whose birth I missed, but I read in the morning paper that he only lived long enough to look very happily at his parents.
The hangover is from a single beer and a conversation with my sister (Take this Cup Motivational and Spatial Design Consultant) about life being basically unfair and way, way too much work.
Bruno Mars came along in a video link the other day, sent to me by my good friend (and Take this Cup Marketing and Graphic Design Consultant) of a tear-jerking-from-even-the-biggest-jerk marriage proposal in which all of the friends and family of a couple (including a marching band and some friends on Skype) come out to dance and lip-synch along. Of course I cried. At the time I thought "a pox on these videos until late February, or I'll never survive!" And I thought it was too much for me because it made me feel like a spinster.
But here's the truth.
The video makes you cry (yes, it will make You cry) not because two people are getting married, but because a whole community of people love them so much that they spent hours putting together a synchronized dance for an audience of one. And because they happily believe in love.
Life is unfair, and it will give you a hangover. You will have to work and work and work, and you might lose everything. Or you might have everything you could possibly want and still be unhappy. But I realize this morning that the random unfairness of life has worked in my favor far more often than not. Being born itself, even for a minute, is an incredible gift.
I taught a Conversational English class in Korea in which the topic one day was what you would do with a month left to live on Earth. One student said "Everyone, write." I teacherly wrote on the board "I would write letters to everyone." Underneath I wrote "I'm sorry for.... Thank you for...." He stopped me and said something I don't think I'll ever forget. "Not sorry, just thank you."
There's no time to edit now- it's time to clean up and get the green beans and salad ready and celebrate this wonderful holiday. I won't list all of the things I have to be thankful for, except for you. Thanks for reading my blog. Thanks for believing in my dream.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQSZbQWuSKs&feature=fvwrel
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