The Great Spring Flood of '09, Part III

ATTENTION: THE CAFE WILL BE CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

We are learning the ins and outs of our cafe intimately. I now know that what I thought of as "intimate" was merely just a scratch on the surface. Respectfully, we've logged our fair share of hours in this space: long summer nights devoted to churning ice cream (even after an 11 hour shift), grueling sessions devoted to calculating appropriate wattage and fixture length for lighting, and measured, leveled, and sifted decisions made picking out the ever-important wall colors ("Buttermilk Biscuit" and "Sea Urchin" BTW) and shelf lengths. The reality is that when our menu reads "Handmade Food, Coffee, & Espresso" we should also include the word "cafe" itself because that's what it is: handmade, crafted, by process, with love. Yet despite all of the time we've spent in that place, we are now only realizing exactly what our cafe is, and what it means to us.

Somehow, this song just feels appropriate for the moment:




I cannot even tell you how many hours we've spent on our hands and knees on the this floor; bleach rag in our hands, chiseling away at the remnants of a hard day's work: dried egg yolk, black scuffs off soft-soled shoes, toddlers' Crayola experiments, and fruit salad shrapnel. And now, I hardly recognize these tiles. These floors have become bound and gagged in a never-ending maze of endless cords, tubes, and wires, which makes navigating this once ingrained road-map nearly impossible.


They have drilled holes in our walls, ripped the baseboard from our floors, removed the sink from the bathroom and the panels from the bar, chipped paint from every and all affected surfaces, and created a dust storm that's been deemed "regrettably unsuitable" by my allergies.


So when I say we are getting to know the ins and outs of our cafe intimately, I mean it. Some of it feels good, like purging; Evan was ecstatic upon discovering that our kitchen mats had never been cleaner. At least some good can come from 3 inches of standing water. Though some of it, as you can imagine, feels raw, like an open sore desperately seeking a scab.

So many people have given us their 2¢, much of which has been to try and relax, and enjoy these moments and the ones that will surely come when we will "laugh about times like these." But I have to tell you, this is not an easy thing to do, not when we've been...well...how do I say it? In mourning? Quite honestly yes, it does feel like mourning to a certain extent. We are feeling regret, and loss, and anger, and fear. But we also know that this is all part of the process, and a long one at that, and we know that there will inevitably be a light at the end of this tunnel. Simply because there has to be. There is no other option.

A friend wrote us today:

"I can only imagine the frustration and anxiety you guys must be going through. But I know that, if anyone can, it is the two of you that can find a way to persevere through this sorry turn of events!"

These words mean a lot. We feel blessed to have such good and decent people for friends, and we also feel respectfully inclined and encouraged to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and get this train back on its tracks. Enough with the worrying and doubt. Enough with the Emergency break, and the pumping of the breaks, and the looming fear of failure. We are feeling the need to establish our goals, define our needs, and determine a swift course of action about when and how we're going to get this cafe back open. That certainly is the only way we're going to feel like we're ourselves again and regain our sanity in this situation. So here's to tomorrow, to new news, shedding light, productivity, and endurance.

And just because I've been doing a lot of listening to music over these past few days, I'll share another favorite that feels aptly relevant:



Then again, I would argue any and every moment is appropriate for David Byrne. I can't get the words out of my head: "And you may ask yourself-well...how did I get here? Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down..."