Community

I admire a lot of things about a lot of fitness cultures. But in some ways I think I just like the aesthetic. That is, I like that there is a community of people who commit themselves to doing that thing, using it as a mechanism to take control of their bodies and thus, by proxy, their lives. Maybe that sounds overzealous, but talk to someone who's heavily involved in just about anything and you'll know it's true. Whether it be trail running (mine), skiing, skating, BMX, cyclocross, crossfit (which I'm only listing to be nice, because really I kinda hate it), olympic lifting, surfing, judo, etcetcetc...., it doesn't matter. You have a thing and it takes time to master, and so you spend it, working on yourself and with or against others. You dress similarly and share a vocabulary and you subscribe to magazines. You call yourself a whatever and you have a community, and that's awesome, essential I think to being a truly happy person.

So, baristas.

We have that too, or we should, really. There are magazines with articles that people who make coffee for a living really should read. Barista Magazine and Roast Magazine are the two I read, and I'm not going to tell you that you should too - but really, you should.

And god, there are blogs. So many that I can't list them all. But here are a few barista blogs (or not, in the case of one) I can't live without: Vvlgr (sadly inactive for a while, but still a great resource), Sprudge, Jimseven. There are approximately one bajillion more, with half of those having something valuable to offer. And I'm here too, filling the rambly stream of consciousness corner the market just DEMANDED.

Sometimes, take your work home with you. Make it a part of who you are, because fuck hating your job so much that you just can't stomach the idea of dealing with it for more than 8 hours a day. Become a lithe hipster barista dirtbag who sneers at people who order things the wrong way... or maybe not quite that far. But you get the idea. So anyway, join the club. EVERYBODY ELSE IS DOING IT AND I'M NOT SAYING WE'LL MAKE FUN OF YOU OTHERWISE BUT PROBABLY WE WILL.