I’m learning to be a Barista! My sister has a very cool, very friendly coffee shop in Adamstown, Pennsylvania. The Stoudtburg Village Coffee Shop is only about two years old and it’s growing day by day. Carol is taking her daughter from school in Georgia to school in Colorado. It seemed a shame to close up for two weeks in the middle of summer. So I figured, I could help out here.

I’ve helped out on busy weekends but mostly making sandwiches and keeping up with brewing the coffee. But now, I’ll be on my own for almost two weeks!

What I am hoping is that working in someone else’s business, doing things the way they think it should be done is going to teach me some things about what I think it the right way.

I really am a little nervous about it all. Will I make the crème just right on the espressos? Will I remember my glasses so that I can read all the posted notes that explain exactly what goes into a BrainFreeze? Will I push the right buttons on the cash register?

But more important than that,

I want to practice being separate from my own worry about that.

I want to practice being separate from my mother’s worry that it’s a long drive across the country and maybe my sister shouldn’t have gone.

I want to practice being separate from my worry that my sister might be right and maybe I will screw it all up and crash her business into total ruin in a mere 12 days.

And I want to focus on what needs to be done.

The shop needs to stay open – to break stride of operating hours now would be a mistake.
People need to get what they order and it has to be a pleasant experience for them.

What needs to be done… is really nothing about me or my worries. But it’s all about what is NOT me. It feels like a much calmer place.

And while I am sure “barista” is not a calm place, I am looking forward to the idea of working at something I’m not used to. Besides, my sister is a barista, my daughter has been a barista.. .. before she was a barrister.. ok.. no, not really.. but a paralegal… anyway. Now I’ll get my chance.