Time is just flying by Last week the coffeeshop turned 5 months old, a few days before David and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. 3 years. Dang. Itapos;s hard to believe how much weapos;ve been through in those three years. I was 19 when we met, and iapos;m about to turn 23 in a week and a half. I feel so lucky and grateful to be with him, and content with the life we are building together. Weapos;ve been through heaven and hell together and I feel like weapos;ve landed on sweet earth.
Things are the shop are good Iapos;m getting my baking down to more of a science lately, since we finally purchased a big freezer so I can actually bake AHEAD instead of always baking for the same day. Weapos;ve also hired some more wait staff, so I get a bit of a break from my double life of baking and waitressing -- er, that is, now Iapos;m baking and managing and waitressing occasionally. Weapos;re carefully planning out some expansion plans which will include a larger coffee roaster, as well as constructing a kitchen in the back and adding a bit more space for tables. Weapos;re trying hard to plan an expansion in quality, not variety of service. As in, weapos;re not going to jump into becoming a restaurant or anything, but weapos;ll just try to have a more steady supply of the same stuff, since weapos;re doing well with what weapos;ve got already.
Hey, my parents are arriving in just a week Wooooo I canapos;t wait to finally show them the shop and to hang out with them a bit. I have been having some homesick moments lately. I canapos;t say that I miss living in Albany full-time, but I do wish I could zip back for a weekend visit from time to time, like I did when I was in college. Why canapos;t Lima be just an hourapos;s drive from New York? sigh. Mostly I miss people and smells. Friends, family, the smell of heavy rain. And you know, sometimes I really miss NYC. Something about that place got under my skin during my last summer in the states.
Something Iapos;ve been meaning to write about for a while: AIR. People are so sensitive to air here. The weather is coastal, generally very humid and temperate, no huge temperature changes -- it gets as low as probably the high 40apos;s in wintertime, and as hot as the 80apos;s and 90apos;s in summertime, but it never freezes, and hardly ever rains. Most houses have no heating or AC, since itapos;s generally a somewhat comfortable temperature. Many houses also have open patio areas in the middle of everything, since it rarely rains. But damn, people are scared of air, of catching drafts. If youapos;re standing in a doorway and feel a draft coming in, youapos;ll probably catch a cold. If you sleep with a fan on, youapos;re likely to wake up with bronchitis. If itapos;s a particularly windy day, people start whispering that they hope thereapos;s not another earthquake, since wind sometimes precedes earthquakes. Tito told me that he knew a woman whose lungs exploded when a particularly strong air touched her while she was washing dishes. And one of my taxi drivers was complaining about an unusual neck pain, and explained it in terms of air, that "me daba un aire en el cuello" -- he caught a draft in his neck People also usually have a strong aversion to air conditioning, since it only serves to create significant temperature changes that are bound to make you very ill. Interesting. I think about how we live in NY for example -- in the wintertime, itapos;s beyond freezing everywhere and hot as balls inside any car or building with heat, which is most of them (public ones, anyways). And in the summertime, you absolutely melt outside, and then sigh with relief when you enter a car with AC or the freezer section of a grocery store. We constantly play with temperature changes and thatapos;s how we survive the seasons without getting too grouchy. So whatapos;s the deal here in Lima? Just a different air. WAAAY humid. When things are always a little damp, the air has a stronger effect. And maybe the ocean air is more powerful, I dunno. Here, if youapos;re chilly, you simply bundle up, no thermostat to adjust. If youapos;re too hot, go to the beach, have some ice cream, and thatapos;s that.
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