Hello from a cozy cafe in the center of Madrid. Oh wait, it’s my cafe and I am sitting here typing this post, taking a break from updating Excel sheets…which are driving me bonkers and are really boring so lucky you, I am going to write a quick post. Today is a little slow…actually, it’s like most Wednesday’s we have had around here. A lot of Americans coming in for a bagel with cream cheese and a cafe con leche. It’s nice to have people come in, but they are trickling in and that bagel with cream cheese and cafe con leche will get you out of here for 4.20€ which aint a bad deal if you ask me. It’s only 1:10 pm, which means lunchtime is around the corner, so there will probably be a light rush.
Of course I have other things I could be doing, like making dough for tomorrow, restocking ingredients, etc., but our employee is coming in later to help close up and I am trying hard to not feel like I need to do EVERYTHING AS FAST AS I CAN and take a break to drink a coffee or read blogs or go to the store! My plan for later is to leave her and head to run a few errands! I will see the sky! During the day! Not on a Monday! What a time to be alive!
Anyway, today when I was biking to work (with my helmet, Mom and Dad), I was thinking about all the things that “led me” to where I am. I mean, hard work, and making thousands of bagels led me here, but I was thinking about all of the little random things that have contributed to the creation of this cafe that I had no clue would be a part of this. Life is weird like that, isn’t it?
5 Things that “led me here”
1 // Learning to ride a bike – I was thinking about how my Dad taught me to ride a bike when I was…6? or 7? I don’t know how old I was, but those bike riding skills make it possible for me to get to work in 7 minutes flat, which makes it possible for me to sleep an extra 15 minutes every day (since I don’t need to take the bus).
2 // All the change from Lee – last year, before my brother left Madrid, he left me with a big bag of random coins that I figured would never be of any use until I would eventually go to the bank, but those coins have been very helpful for giving people change. At the time, I thought “what am I going to do with all of these coins”.
3 // Luis’ iPad – Luis bought an iPad a few years ago and proceeded to basically never use it, which annoyed me because I don’t like the idea of wasting money and I don’t like the idea of junk piling up, but we now use that iPad as our computer for taking orders and keeping track of income in the shop. It’s our cash register computer!
4 // My collection of plants – I love plants and had a pretty huge stash of them at home, but those plants are decorating the shop and they make me feel like a piece of home is here with me.
5 // My Mom’s love of cooking and baking – I really don’t think I would be here at all if I didn’t grow up with a Mom who made 95% of everything we ate and who wasn’t/ isn’t afraid of trying new recipes. Maybe that’s what led me to make my own pumpkin pie back in 2015 and then proceed to sell it to the masses…and here we are.
6 // Bonus- Ikea chairs and tables – a couple years ago, Luis bought 2 tables and 4 chairs from Ikea for Thanksgiving and I thought uggggh what a waste because we will use them 1x per year and guess which tables and chairs we have in the cafe….? 🙂
7 // Bonus bonus – we wrap our to-go bagels the same way my Dad wrapped my sandwiches in packed lunches…I learned from him!
