SCAA Day 1 eve

The beginning of the SCAA has started and I have continued to "help" Milstead, and survive the visitors that come to the shop. I have a strange sense of nervousness, not because they'll judge me (surprisingly) but because they're doing the same things I'm doing, writing about it, making it their life, and some (not all) are better than me. I'm not the best and I don't claim to be, but I know that Kopplin's is the best at what we do in the cities here.

and I am the hottest.

right next to Angela, and milstead.

but I'm not gay. Anyway, the whole hubbub with coffee superstars and oral fixation and whatnot, is so weird to me, but in a way it's so cool. It seriously feels like the circus is in town, and not really the good kind, but you can't help but go and watch the human lizard, or the bearded woman. Dude, I want to get more involved in this whole thing, but there's lots of cliches, and there're lots of egos, and there's lots of knowledge that no one's going to teach you. I guess this is where I go it alone, or with milstead ... milstead and Angela, and we ride, on one horse, cause I can't afford much. The superstars that we read about in barista mag, coffeed, jimseven and whatnot are ones that have their own shops or are traveling the world making a difference in people's lives - I guess I'm thinking of farmers, and rogue baristas looking for a master, or are willing to be the master themselves (aka - Billy Wilson, Andrew Kopplin, etc).

I was talking with a rogue the other day, though I know that she is more like a dealer of sorts, and the whole of the coffee industry is wanting to be something more; yet money, life and business get in the way, or just happens - either way you look at it. In the end we're all relying on thousands of farmers around the world to do a good job and help us look good. How can we give it back? How can we support the hand that feeds us? Beyond the showmanship and the bling, how can the world benefit from what we do? Making coffee, it's something, not everything, but it's a big business and thousands of people around the world make, drink and are brought together with this beverage.