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Category: Things That Bring Joy

If one thing could take you back.

Sometimes I have a hard time remembering the good times. I don’t think it is because I haven’t had many lately… I think it is more that I’m consumed with moving forward. The next thing. Growing past the moment. It’s exhausting really. The other day, my two younger sons – Grey and Park (and their buddy E) – and I were on one of our nearly daily walks to school and Grey pipped in… “It smells like Crested Butte.” It hit me like a sack of bricks and reminded me of something special that we all have and one of…

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There is NO PLACE like the Finish Line.

“When you finish these events, you inspire EVERYONE around you.“ There is no place like the finish line. A place that a few hours before was your start. Familiar but new. It transforms into something you can see and you can hear about but you can’t really FEEL until you have crossed it. The physical space transforms… so that you can transform. At one moment, a starting line. Hours later… a finish. At 8:00a, you will start and suffer and think you will fail and you either will or you won’t. But you won’t because you are made for this.…

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I would never have imagined it.

(this has NOTHING to do with coffee or business or Edmond or anything more than something that is bringing ALL the joy at the moment) For the past 3 years, our oldest son – TUK – has jumped head first into the world of lacrosse and has since played day in and day out it seems. Last year, he decided to try out for Impulse Lacrosse based in Tulsa, Oklahoma and headed up by Pro Callum Crawford – one of the top forward in the National Lacrosse League and Ryan Fournier. None of that really made any since to me…

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It was the first thing I’d do.

Back in 2002 or 2003, I had this routine that would instinctively play out as soon as I hit the hotel in a new city or town I was in. No matter why I was there, I had to jump in the yellow pages on the side table at the Hotel or in the info provided to see what coffee was close and which places I needed to visit. (Yes, it was the Yellow Pages. Do you even remember those??) I would make a list of places that I need to go have a sip at and see in person…

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“We read to know we are not alone.”

C.S, Lewis said that.. or, maybe it was just his character in Shadowlands that said it but either way – someone said it and I like it. I actually first saw this posted on the sidewalk sign in front of my friend Ben’s bookstore in Downtown Edmond but that isn’t really what this post is about.. At the end of 2022, I was feeling drained and just plain exhausted. I found myself looking at my phone more and more per day and had that “fed up” moment with myself. In fact, it might have been a time when I got…

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What a dumb idea. No one will eat it.

I’m pretty sure this is how it happened. Maybe I’m going to make it more of a story than it really was but.. yeah, this is how it happened… Waffle Sandwich – the legend of EVOKE. Maybe the most popular thing on the menu and for sure the most popular personality at EVOKE (except maybe Kyle.. everyone liked Kyle, too….) Here are the characters: An EVOKE House Waffle.. Pesto Mayo.. Ham (and then at one point Turkey) and then Ham again (<– supply chain? Boredom? Who knows…) Egg.. Swiss Cheese Here is how I remember it all going down. We…

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The last 5 miles to Emporia

There were 201 miles that came before this. Hours and hours of riding. Bottles and bottles of Tailwind Nutrition. There is something about the finish line that I can’t really express or explain. That feeling of being done while knowing that this might just be the beginning. That reset of your “impossible” that happens with each line you cross. I don’t go to races guaranteeing myself anything. I don’t even really go to races knowing what I’m capable of doing. I more just show up to races willing to try something I’m not sure I’m able to do. Zach Miller,…

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EVOKE: In OUR Words

It is funny how much more you remember when you begin to flip through the look book of time. That little spark that gets your heart and soul moving to a rhythm that you thought you had forgotten or that you didn’t even remember you ever had. I can see it in my own kids – my oldest and his memories of “the shop” and growing up full blown a coffee shop kid.. My middle with so many little memories of his older friends and drinking hot chocolate and collecting bottle caps.. My youngest who never really even knew life…

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This is where YOU come in.

This year, I am allowing myself to be nostalgic which, if you know me at all, is something I’m pretty uncomfortable with. Call it living in the moment. Being unattached. I’m not sure. I have really been pushing myself to remember. To remember all the things we got to do at EVOKE – the euphoric highs and the really tough lows. The relationships that we made. The coffees we drank. The excitement that got me up at 5a nearly every day for so many years. To remember the people that made EVOKE what is it both behind the bar and…

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