Okay, so I haven't blogged in nearly 6 1/2 months, so why should you bother reading it? Hopefully you love great coffee and the Cosmic Cup and want to be updated on recent happenings. Over the past six months we hosted a great barista jam with 53 participants, I competed in the Mid-Atlantic Barista Competition, placed seventh in said competition, journeyed to New Harvest Coffee Roasters to develop a new espresso blend, traveled to Portland and Seattle to check out the coffee scene and vacation a bit, and got my fat butt on the bicycle frequently! I've logged over 1,000 miles this Summer and feel great about it; lighter and healthier. In addition, the healthier part of it has been aided by re-evaluating what I shove in my mouth. I've read some things that have helped in this. Chris Carmichael (Lance Armstrong's coach) started the ball, and my bicycle rolling with "The Five Essentials for a Winning Life" , then Kathy read Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" (which I'm reading now), and "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michal Pollan. It seems that much of this past year has been a journey toward a different mindset, starting with my involvement in the Sustainable Business Network of the Lehigh Valley, bringing Michael Shuman to Bethlehem to speak about the value of a strong local economy, and how small independent businesses are the backbone of that. Maybe I'm just getting old, or smarter, but the result has been feeling healthier and feeling better about the choices I make with my dollars.
While I've been on this personal journey of sorts, we had some major staff transitions. Jamie Kleman, my hero and former Cosmic Cup barista, or at least barista on sabbatical, left us in February to serve in the Peace Corps for two years. I'll post her email address, she's in the Northern part of Malawi, coincidentally coffee country. Then Tom and Kailyn left in April, to be replaced by our Summer staff in May. Stacy did an excellent job backing me up as Assistant Manager this Summer, but sadly she returns to Duquesne for the Fall semester. We have some new crew members on hand already, and will have more when the semester starts. I'm looking forward to the Lafayette students returning, not only for the extra jingle in the cash register, but because they add life to the Cosmic Cup, and to Easton. I'm not promising frequent blog posts, but I really want to try and keep this updated!
Welcome back to the blogosphere! I can appreciate the fitness quest; I've been making a concerted effort to make it to the gym for the last year or so, and it's made a hell of a difference (so much so that I now feel worse when I don't go ... who'd have thunk it: a fit geek).
Wednesday's jam session (9/19) was excellent; I'd love to see more late night nights like that now that the college is back in session.
Posted by: Ken Newquist | September 20, 2007 at 05:55 AM