Hello!  I am writing this and I’m a bit high….in endorphins!  From the first run I have been on in over two months!  It is 70 degrees and sunny (at 10:30 am) and going uo to 85 and sunny today and it is just the third day that we are allowed out for exercise. 

We are in “phase 0” of the deescalation of the quarantine, which has allowed us to go for walks/runs/ bike rides between 6 am and 10 am and 8 pm and 11 pm.  It’s weird living in a highly controlled state, but I am grateful to be able to go out and enjoy the sunshine and actually, the scheduler in me sort of likes having the time restriction because I can write in my agenda “run 9:20-10 am”, which is exactly what I did!  I haven’t been running in a long, long time, mostly because I am just so busy, but laregly because when I’m not working, my body is in a lot of pain.  The bakery is taking a big toll on my body, especially my knees (the hurt in the back- I think mostly from standing for extended periods) and my wrists, both from rolling a couple hundred bagels a day as well as from holding my phone).  They are both things that will likely go away with an extended rest period, but MAN, I was feeling the knee pain on my run today!  That’s something new for me!  I even had to stop and walk a lot to ease the pressure a bit.

SO- another Monday!  Time flies (yes, I say that every week, but it really flies!).  It’s already May and I honestly can’t believe it- a part of me still feels stuck in March when all of this started.  I haven’t done anything fun or monumental- something that helps differenciate one day or month from the next.  We are having a bit of a Groundhog Day experience over here, but when I look outside, I see tshirts, and flowers blooming, and pollen in the air (and Luis sneezing a ton from it!), and warmth-85 degrees!  So summer is coming, yet none of my favorite parts of summer are anywhere to be found- people going to the beach, everyone fighting to get a table on their favorite terraza to have a cold caña with friends.  There are no summer dresses in the windows or that sweet anticipation of longer days and less life stress.  Right now it just feels like everyone is doing the necessary things to live- walk, supermarket, pharmacy, sleep.  BUT with that being said, things are loosening up and for that, I am grateful.  On Saturday, which was the first day we were allowed out to walk with people we live with, the streets were COMPLETELY packed at 8 pm.  It was like being at a carnival or the zoo.  It kind of made me think that the decision to NOT let people out for walks during this entire quarantine was a bad idea because now it’s like people can’t get enough…

Moving on to greener pastures….this weekend was a good one!  As was April!  Today is the day I will work on our income and expense reports (I do it weekly), but will also do our April summary income report.  It’s a lot of number crunching and graph-making in Excel, but I like doing it.  I like to see that at the end of the hard work, there is a reward, and I also like seeing that even when it feels like we are hemorrhaging money (I looked up how to spell hemorrhaging, Dad- sorry to give you one less fun thing to look forward to!), I know that everything is under control.

Best parts of work this weekend (and funny, annoying parts too):

• We sent a birthday surprise to someone (ordered by their sister) and they wrote a message to me saying that they cried when they received it because our cafe is their absolute favorite place
• We sent another birthday surprise to someone and the person who ordered it emailed me and said it made their friend’s day!
• Editted to add: just received this email: 
  Además de darte las gracias de haber traído el pedido el día de hoy, quería felicitarte por la trata, estaba excelente. Ese recuerdo a Reese’s Ha sido increíble.
• We didn’t run out of bagels on any day (this has happened before, which means one unlucky person gets a message saying their bagels will arrive the next day).
• I didn’t receive ANY messages that we forgot something or screwed up any orders in the whole weekend!!!!
• Bad thing: there was a miscommunication on how much oil and water gets added to our challahs, which caused us to make 11 loaves that looked  like (and had the texture of) brioche.  I am trying very hard to do things WELL, even if it takes longer, so we decided to remake all 11 loaves…which meant our delivery guy had to work extra hours as did our employee…but I only cried for like…30 seconds.  So it was a win.  And in the end, it was fine.  It always is, right?
• We had someone who ordered bagels for Sunday and told me they would like them delivered as early as possible and i told them that we deliver by zones, but we will do our best to deliver to them in the first route.  I told her to email us that night to find out what route they would be in and while she didn’t email us the night before, she emailed on Sunday morning saying she wanted the bagels as early as possible.  Around 12 she called to ask when they would be delivered and I told her she was in the first route and the delivery guy would be there within 30-45 minutes (our first route usually goes from 11-12:45) and she was all upset that it was soooo late and had she known….blah blah blah… and I said “don’t worry, he shouldn’t be long…” and she said “LONG?  30-45 minutes!!!” (at which point I should have told her…ok…we will move you to the last route and they will arrive at 6 pm…stop complaining lady or send someone to come get them!”  But I just stayed quiet until she said “ok, now I know for next time…”.  Yeah, ….bye.
• We had another customer who 1. sent an order through the message form on our website with no address and ordered something that was out of stock and “if we have any questions, to send her a whatsapp to X number because she doesn’t check her email often”.  Being that I don’t have time to bend over backwards for people, I sent her an email saying that she would need to choose another item and we would need her address and how would she like to pay?  Then she called the next day and asked when everything would be delivered…Luis told her it would have to be the next day and we would get back to her that evening.  That evening, we had an instagram message from her asking to add 5 cookies to the order and to PLEASE send her a whatsapp with any questions.  I responded that 1. I need your full order (she ordered some things through the website and some through IG). 2. We need the address and 3. We do not send whatsapps to customers because we have a high volume of orders and I don’t want you to have my damn phone number ! (didn’t say that last part, but was thinking about it).  In the end, we got the straight order, she paid, and we delivered, but OH my gosh I wish I could make these things up!  It made us laugh…but really, I wanted to tell her that I have 10 unread whatsapps and 30 unread emails and am working usually 14 hours a day and yet I find time to check my emails and respond to messages and you are asking ME to inconvenience myself to 1. add your phone number to my phone, 2. chase you down for information and payment for something YOU ARE ORDERING and 3. give you my personal phone number in the process.  Yeah, that’s gonna be a fat negative.

Anyway, it does give us some entertainment!

Alright, I am off!  I am going to finish my latte, respond to the 31 unread emails I have and then:

• eat breakfast!
• take a shower
• call my hairdresser for an appointment!  They open at 11 am today (to make appointments) and I need an appt stat for the fro
• finish my US tax stuff…..
• write to my accountant here…. i don’t like being an adult.
• do our budget
• clean my entire inbox (I try to get it under 30 emails every Monday…it goes up to about 300 over the course of the week (and that’s with me checking and deleting every day)
• make some new IG posts
• record a podcast!  I got asked to be on the Eat Out Podcast so we are recording later this afternoon!
• update our website to reflect new cakes
• clean the house
• maybe paint???  I want to paint a new picture for the shop

That is all!  Happy Week!!!