So, just a little bit of “about me” to get us acquainted.

Such a beautiful sight!

As a kid I always wondered what this “coffee” stuff was that all the adults drank that ”kids” weren’t supposed to drink. I knew it wasn’t like alcohol so what was the big deal about it? It piqued my interest, but not enough to bother me any. SO- through most of my teens, I just said “I don’t drink coffee” (yeah, I know….WTH?).

WELL- I’m sitting in Psychology 1 waiting for the professor to show up to teach and a friend of mine sitting next to me says “Oh My God, You HAVE to try this!” and hands me her Starbucks cup. “I don’t drink coffee” I say. She says to me “Neither do I. It’s nasty, but someone told me I should try this and WOW, it’s SOOOOO GOOD!”  I ask her what it is and she tells me it’s called a “White Chocolate Mocha”. Hmmm…that sounds pretty good and I like white chocolate quite a bit so, Okay, I’ll try it. WOW, it was SOOOO GOOD! Well, I guess I AM a coffee drinker.

 SO, I meet some people who work/hang out at Starbucks and they start buying me a coffee every now and again when I didn’t have any money (starving college student) and one of them suggests that I apply. I end up not going through with college so eventually I decide to apply and I get the job. COOL- now I’m a barista! I work at Starbucks for 15 months and have an absolute blast!

When I leave Starbucks I apply at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and….get the job (which wasn’t too surprising because the manager there was my manager at Starbucks when I started) I work at CBTL for 12 months and only leave after some kind of strange scandal that I’m still not quite sure about, BUT while I’m there I have an absolute blast (am I being redundant?).

 ANYWAY- Blah, blah, blah, I end up at Latte 101 in Ventura in January 2004. In April, this guy walks in who my manager knows and they’re talking a bit and this guy looks up and notices that mine is not a face he recognizes (he frequented Latte 101 enough to know everyone – how I got through 2 months of working there before seeing him, I have no idea). So he says “Who are you?” simple, right? Wrong. He says it with a… kind of a… shocked? stunned? Can’t quite put my finger on the exact ‘way’ he said it, but it was like he was insinuating that I did not belong there… in a nice way. I say “nobody, I’m the new girl”. I make him his latte and as he’s leaving the store it hits me…” THAT is a handsome man!” So we meet, we talk, we laugh, we drive, we move in, we get married. Here I am.

**NOTE** yeah, that last bit was a little rushed in the story-telling department, but my kids need me and, well, they’re more important than you  :)

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Okay, I’m back to finish the story. (it’s now November 27)

Where was I? Oh yeah, it hits me “THAT is a handsome man!” So, after my shift a couple days later, he’s sitting out front drinking his latte and I don’t have anywhere to be so I sit down with him and we started talking. His name is Daniel. He has three kids (one is his step-kid who he has full custody of)…SUPER… and is an alcoholic…GREAT. He’s in the middle of divorce and custody battle…AWESOME. He spends most of his days going to AA meetings….PERFECT. NOT the guy for me.

BUT, I really enjoyed talking with him. He has a very real view of life and isn’t afraid to speak the truth, even if it might hurt your feelings, and he does it in such a way that you KNOW he’s not trying to hurt your feelings. This is something new to me. Most everyone in my life up to this point will tell you what they think you want to hear so they a) don’t hurt your feelings and b) are “supportive” by being on “your side”.

I start hanging out with him after I get off work and it almost seems like he starts waiting for me to get off work (I’m still not sure if that was the case or not). The more we talk, the more I enjoy his company. We exchange phone numbers. A few days later, I have a shift that starts at 6am and I sleep in. As I’m turning down the street before the coffee shop (around 6:25), my phone rings….It’s Daniel, asking if I’m alright because I’m supposed to be at work. He’s there waiting for me. It made me feel good that he was concerned about me and that he wanted to see me. After work (that day?) maybe it was the next day, I ask him if he has any plans and if he wants to hang out somewhere other than Latte 101.

That was the first day of the rest of my life.

Daniel and I have been married for 6 years and have two children together. We have custody of his two children from his previous marriage too. If it wasn’t for my love of coffee, I would never have been working at Latte 101. Thank you, Espresso, for introducing me to the love of my life.

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