Memorial Day

Aren't 3-day weekends the best!??!?!? Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but it's always nice to have a little extra time to socialize and spend time in the great outdoors to recharge. This weekend some of my coworkers had a BBQ on Sunday and it sure was great. Many Intelligentsia folks from all 3 buildings hanging out, feasting, and of course, enjoying some cold beverages. I also love that disguised in the 3-day weekend is a subsequent 4-day workweek, although of course there are always challenges of fitting everything into 4 days. I have been feeling since the USBC in March that I have been playing catch-up and barely making it...until this week and now I think I finally feel like my workweek is more manageable. Just in time.
Last week's training included a new customer in Texas which was quite an adventure. In San Antonio apparently if you keep cattle on your land while it's in development there are huge tax breaks, so there are tracts of land in the middle of the urban sprawl with cattle on them...right next to the highway even! My customer said that sometimes the cows walk out into the street and block traffic. I love seeing new areas of the country and discovering their quirks!
This week I will be off to Florida. Both of these new customers have purchased Marzoccos (hooray!) and are quality-focused startups. These are my very favorite types of training where there are so many questions being asked and I'm constantly challenged to keep the training sessions interesting and relevant and of course challenging. In Texas I had the opportunity to work with some very driven high-school and college students and that's always nice since I don't really know many high-school age young people anymore. Not like it seems very long ago at all that I was in high-school.
Anyway I'm looking forward to seeing both of these new places contribute to specialty coffee and I know they have great things in store for them.