We've been struggling with ways to bring people into our shop during the summer months. We finally, after more than three months, have received our liquor license. This is big news! This small infusion has led to all kinds of energy directed toward the shop, and then to other places beyond that. When it finally seemed like we would be approved for our license, we went crazy with other ideas - ice cream, espresso shakes, new classes - and we really have started looking forward to September, when business goes through the roof. We know so much more than we did a year ago, and everything is so much less terrifying.

With the new rush at the shop, I felt like it was time to (finally) focus on some things that I'd wanted to do on my own. Since opening in June of last year, every inch has been taken by running the business...but a year into it, it feels like there is space to concentrate on other things. I'm working on a small magazine that I'll publish on my own, and this blog - both called The Gauge.

It's going to be a good summer in other ways, as well. My fella and I are getting married in Vermont in August. I am from Vermont and haven't been there for two years. The thought of spending a month there makes me want to freak out with joy. We're renting a camp on the lake I was raised on, and I can't wait to show him...everything. I'm also hoping that leaving Portland for a spell will make me fond of it. I could use that.