As of January 3rd, 2012 I was officially unemployed.
I've been here before, unemployed, scared, wanting to stay in coffee.
I guess a benefit of loving what you do for a living is that you know where to look for work. On the flip side of that, the coffee industry, at least the specialty coffee industry, is a hard egg to crack. Once you've worked somewhere that is "doing it right" it's nearly impossible to live with yourself and take a step backwards in to a cafe that is still serving hazelnut flavored coffee on tap, or even a place without an option for a pour over bar for that matter.
SO... the question was.. what now? I have a degree, I can go back to the corporate world of pushing paper and living 40 hours per week in a cubicle.. sure, it pays the bills; however, the movie Office Space was made for a reason.
What happens next in this tale is very typical of my life.
I left my job on the 3rd, slept all day the 4th, and on the 5th of January I made a decision to run. I packed up my good old duffel bag, which has traveled all over the country with me, loaded up my car - complete with my on the road brew bar, some snacks and I hit the road.
My intention was to pick up two of my buddies in Riverside, CA from Costa Mesa, CA and drive to Fresno for a couple of days to visit a friend of mine who just moved there with her family. They haven't been in Fresno long and were lonely for some company, so why not, right? The plan was to just visit, surprise Chuck and Jill, wait for Saturday when five more of our friends could join the party, turn around and drive the 3 hours home... simple, or so one might think.
En route to Riverside, I decided to stop at my friend Ani's house in Huntington Beach. Ani, her husband Jason and I became friends at my old shop, they had heard I was sad and distraught about work and wanted to help in anyway they could. I stopped in and we began to discuss options. I kindly explained my situation and how its super difficult to get into a good shop, even with a ton of experience. I went on to explain how small the coffee community is and even though I have a lot of connections, they were spread all over the country and I had no idea what was in store for me and my coffee future. The next thing I know, they are offering to fly me to San Francisco and Portland. Wow! They still have more confidence in my than I do...
Suddenly, I had a moment of clarity, perhaps stupidity, I'm still not sure. "GO!" is what they shouted! "Go find good coffee and apply!".. Then the hamster wheel in my brain started to accelerate. I have all my bills paid, and a severance coming, why not go? Ani and Jason handed me gas money and off I went.
I spent a week in Fresno with my friends and hit the ground running.
While in Fresno, I brewed so much coffee for my friends, talked about my career, about my dreams and aspirations and everyone of them revolved around coffee.
The decision was already made for me when I got a call back from Seattle and had an interview on that upcoming Friday... So I went.
This is just the introduction to a series of blogs about my west coast coffee tour. . . 40 cafes in 10 days.
Fresno, Modesto, Oakland, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, LA and everything in between.. Stay tuned for my experience, reviews, compliments, complaints and journey of a lone barista looking for work and finding so much more in this amazing community that we call.. Specialty Coffee.
Cheers and enjoy the coffee.
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