Hello there scarce readers out there and billions of spam bots trolling this website, it’s nice to be back here again.

I think about writing here often, but then I don’t….so much time has passed so I feel all this pressure to go back to where I left off and that task feels insurmountable, so I just don’t do anything at all. But! Let’s celebrate this victory of being back before I likely disappear for another 2-4 months. Also, apologies in advance that this post may be full of typos and errors…it is a Spanish keyboard so every single word I write is underlined because I am writing in English.

Anyway, hello. How are you? I am well, mostly. I fluctuate between being great and being utterly overwhelmed. It’s not the amount of work I have (I know that’s what you’re thinking, Mom)…it’s the people and the employees, and caring about people’s feelings, while also trying not to give a shit at all, but still caring, and the stupid bullshit systems that exist in Spain, and covid, and everyone getting sick. We had a few short, very sweet months of incredible smooth sailing, which was nice. I remember back in October thinking “things are as good as they’re going to get”….it was a day I was out having a drink with our team and everyone was happy and I was happy and thinking how great things were, but well aware that it all eventually hits the fan…and it did… and we got through it, with many hours of physical work, taking on the job of 2 people that work 40 hour weeks, working early and staying late. Cried tears of frustration and also celebrated the joy when I had a day off and could sleep for 10 hours and eat some french toast in peace and quiet.

Before all of the bullsh!t, I was able to go to Florida for 10 days, 5 of which Luis was there and it was glorious. It was like business ownership heaven….the wheels kept turning and everything was perfect and I had my toes in the sand without much worry about what was happening on this side of the world. Serious perfection.

And about 3 weeks later I was mopping the floor at the shop after working for 13 hours and I said to Luis, it doesn’t matter what we do or how we do it, we always find our way back HERE, or so it seems. Things have gotten better and are looking up (very up), but we still have a ways to go. Our team is very much new (and they’re great!), but with so many new people, it requires me to be on all the time, which is hard. On the plus side, I have been working a lot less in the shop and a lot more at home and it is absolutely incredible how working from home generates income for our business. As a business owner, it is SO hard to get out of the business itself and to put my mind to work because I want to be so controlling about what happens in the day-to-day, but learning to let my team take some responsibility (and holding them to that responsibility) has led to so many things- way more orders, more catering opportunities, 1…or 2… new locations….lots of new stuff.

I am trying to add pictures to this post but it won’t allow me to do so so just imagine pictures of beaches, bagels, and french toast.

Better sign off before I lose the urge to post….see ya soon xoxo