ramblings of a coffee/yogurt shop owner

It’s Sunday night and I’m just sitting down after putting the kids to bed for the night.  I’ll get up here in a second to get my bowl of cereal (every night – never gonna stop) but I wanted to sit down try to type out all the thoughts that are swirling around in my head.

Swirl.

Did you know that you have to put this special little plastic piece on the yogurt pump machine to get it to swirl the yogurt just so.  If you didn’t have the piece it would just come out in a circle pattern but instead, it comes out with that signature swirl.  I wonder if they make different designs, like moons and hearts.  I know about this plastic piece because I spent an hour and a half today taking apart our frozen yogurt machine to clean it.  You (I) have to do this twice a week.  I’m sure I’ll whittle down that cleaning time but man…today had me a little frustrated.  There’s this entire process of taking everything apart, washing it, greasing the parts and then running a special cleaner through the machine.  I’m actually quite proud of myself.  The tech drove from Charlotte last Wednesday to teach me how to clean it and I actually remembered each of the steps!!  I’m so glad he made me get some hands-on experience because I learn from DOING things, not reading about them or listening.  What’s that type of learner called?  I don’t remember.

This weekend was crazy.

Actually the entire week (month) leading up until now has been one wild ride.  I’m not going to lie – I think I cried most every day last week and lost about two hours of sleep every night.  I would just lay down and toss and turn, thinking about all the things that needed to get done before we opened.  My cortisol levels must have been astronomical.  For some crazy reason, we only gave ourselves four days to completely gut the back of the store and reset everything.  A little too ambitious.  We opened one day later than we had planned so I’m calling that a win.

And Saturday.  Oh Saturday.

The rush for getting everything up and running was spurred on by our annual Fall festival, Pumpkinfest.  Downtown Franklin receives a couple THOUSAND visitors during the festival and the whole main street is blocked off.  It was just the perfect time for us to try to be open so I made it happen.  At the cost of my sleep and sanity.

From Pumpkinfest four years ago vs. Saturday

We did WELL though!  Here’s what the day looked like:

PUMPKINFEST – Saturday, October 25th

3am-5am:  Can’t sleep.  Too many thoughts.  Too excited.

6am:  Alarm goes off – I must have fallen asleep.  Hop up and get ready.

7am:  Katy (sister) comes to pick me up and we open the shop with the help of two other girls (THANK GOD for those two girls since Katy and I don’t really know coffee).

7:30am – 5:00pm:  Run the cash register, greet customers, help with what I can.  Travis brings Porter to me three times during the day so I can nurse him – the only time I sit the entire day.  I bring breakfast and lunch but have no time to eat them.

5:30pm:  Close out the register.  Walk home.  Enjoy the rest of the night with my family who I miss greatly.

A couple of other things:

• A teenager who I’m guessing had never been to a self-serve, pay-by-weight froyo place got a cup and filled it to the brim with all sorts of junk.  He thought he paid by the cup not by weight.  When I told him it was $18, his jaw dropped.  I’m not sure he’ll return.
• A pregnant woman’s water BROKE while she was getting coffee!!  She used our restroom and then (I’m assuming) headed to the hospital!!!! 
• One kid didn’t like our flavors so he got a cup and filled it to the top with Sour Patch Kids.  I gave that kid a high five.
• My new favorite coffee drink is a DIRTY CHAI BREVE.  It’s two shots of espresso poured into a chai tea that’s made with half and half.  Tastes like Fall in a cup!!  Order one – you won’t be sorry!

Anyhoo…the shop is open.  Main Street Coffee & Yogurt is open.  And we made it through our first big day!!  I’m just going to soak that up for a bit and thank my Father for His blessings.  And I’m going to relax into a period of running this business from home.  And I’m gonna go get some cereal because we got a new box of Honeycomb that needs to be broken in and it isn’t going to eat itself.

Happy Monday, friends!!!

QUESTION:  What’s your favorite COFFEE drink??  Froyo flavor??

splendid…lindsay