It's official!

Hi =)

Here's the latest and greatest:

• Whole Foods- it happened. Officially. If you  go to the Whole Foods on Cambie and 8th, and head to the chocolate isle, and look on the second shelf from the bottom, with the "special" tags, you will see Zimt chocolate! Here is an image I took the first time I saw them there and thought "I wrapped so many chocolate bars.":

Zimt at Whole Foods- kind of a big deal.

First Whole Foods delivery- a big day for Theo!

 And here is a picture of me and the lovely Leeanne- the day I dropped off the bars:

Lovely Leeanne and Elated Emma.

• This is what happened that day- it was Thursday, December 8th. I had a demo at Greens in the morning, from 10 until 2pm, which was fun as per usual! Not  a particularly high traffic time, but that's okay because I met some really enthusiastic and inquisitive people, and my friend from high school, Andrea, came to visit.  =)

• Then there was the Whole Foods demo from 5 until 8pm, and I was very thankful for the generous help of a student from the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition... because I couldn't have done it without her help. People were lining up like crazy! It was really encouraging to hear people's feedback and about how much they like Zimt chocolate. Fingers crossed.

• I wrote a business plan! It was super intense and I didn't really sleep at all for maybe three days in a row, but that's quite my own fault for leaving it to the last minute. Though not really, because I was busy running a business. Which I should've had a plan for from the get go. But didn't because... its just... writing reports is school-y and I just am not great with that. No school ever, ever, ever, eeeeeeeever again. I am truly thankful for my education, but, I am just not cut out for school! Though I sure pretended to be for 18 years.  Anyway. My business plan- other than the actual numbers, it is a thing of beauty. I hope to implement it beyond conservative estimates. Unless I want to live in poverty- that's how I imagined this all to play out.  

• I am meeting with some potential employees (Oompa Loompas!). Just so they can help out a bit- some part-time work.  And prevent the poverty. 

• I'm badgering my web host's customer service. Speaking of which- check out the Zimt site! www.zimt.ca  It now has an online store, which I am trying to get rid of, but you can order product off of it until I do. 
• I started this post over 24 hours ago.
• I went to the US to pick up a coconut nectar shipment. On the way, I had a conversation, kinda one-sided, that went like this:

"Hey God- I don't want to have to fill out papers for the coconut nectar. And I don't want to pay duty fees or whatever.  But I will be totally honest to the border guards this time, and maybe that means I will have to fill out papers and wait around at customs and immigration for a while. But maybe not... eh??? "

The lady border guard didn't care that I was carting a massive thing of coconut nectar into Canada. So nice =) ! I guess somebody wanted me to bring coconut nectar to Canada with ease? I personally think there are more pressing matters, but hey. Maybe there's some sort of chain reaction- I don't know. 

Something else fun: 

I was leaving my house to go get a signature from Ricky, my friend and business mentor, for my business plan, before dropping it off at school, and heard a knock at the door. Two kids were collecting food for those who cannot afford food. They asked me for food and I said, "Sorry. I don't have any food.", which, particularly in the sense of canned goods, is true to my knowledge. And then they left.

And then I thought about how unfun it can be to go from house to house in unpleasant weather conditions, asking for things from people who should be able to give, but who often don't for a variety of reasons. 

And then I thought- "I have chocolate". And then I asked as they were walking away if they wanted some chocolate for energy. 

What a question.

So we chatted a bit and it turns out that one of the boys' family has a cocoa plantation in Trinidad. Neat! I gave him my card. I would love to go to Trinidad. =) 

Have a great Wednesday!

Emma