So I really should be working on menus for the mock service in 48 hours...but I'll get there eventually. Its been awhile and after a truly shitty day I had an epically awesome day and wanted to share.
I'm in the midst of opening a new restaurant. Its not mine by money, but it is by job title. I'll be fair - I'm loving this. This is the part of what I do that I dig. There are parts of it that blow goats, and parts that are an adrenaline rush and parts that put me in a blind rage...and I LOVE it. I am constantly moving, I am organizing, overseeing, bossing around, training and dealing with it all. And I am good at it. Very good at if I may say so myself, and I think if you asked anyone who has done it with me they would agree. I dont freak out, if I am unhappy you know why and exactly what must be done to fix it, its the only place in this world that I can juggle (i can barely walk & chew gum at the same time in real life) but there I can juggle a gazillion things. Ask anyone who has ever been in charge of a restaurant opening...there is nothing like it. There are so many things that must be perfectly conducted with so many people the stress is unreal...but in my opinion healthy stress to a point in that its see a problem solve a problem stress. Either way I love it. So as miserable as I have been over the last year and as far behind as I am falling with the other 4 restaurants at the moment and the bullshit HR shit awaiting me at the end of this opening I love it now, and thats enough for me.
So about 2 weeks ago the boss handed me the reigns. It was my turn to do my thing. Hence I haven't been around a whole lot. Through the course of every project there is the first month or so that is his. Its his job to get it built. He has to provide me a space...and I am very involved in the development of the space - it just do it via the walk into a meeting and say "yeah I dont like that, move it over there and give me one more fryer, that isnt enough burner space and that oven is ridiculous. Get me this oven, add this over here and move that to that wall to make this flow better." along with gems like "thats hideous and there is no way we are using that fabric on booths" & "well I can understand why you would think that is a good idea but as the human responsible for making that happen i disagree and think we should....." and with an amazing designer he builds me a space. About 3 weeks out he starts to back off and let me turn it into a restaurant. He gets to keep playing with the contractors & builders, I have to get the staff, stuff & rest of it all together. I handle everything but the bar menus. And we are 48 hours from our first Mock service....KAPOW!!! We haz a restaurant!
And I'm excited. The Wizard let me go a direction with the menu that I didnt think he would. Its not a complete departure from our menus, but it is definitely a departure. I opened up the vegetarian & vegan options a lot which I think is great, I cut back the boring pizza menu & dressed it up, I took traditional yinzer salads & made them more yinzer-chic with some less traditional options and changed our more normal meat/starch/veg entrees for a more tapas style-small plate with the majority of it being chef driven and rotated out often with fresh, seasonal, local items. The menu is markedly smaller than any of the other restaurants and tends toward a more foodie feel while still maintaining our core. I couldnt believe he took the first draft and said great...fix some formatting issues for me and we are good. I was prepared to have to work for this drastic of a change; The Wizard is nothing if not stuck in his ways generally. But he liked it. And didnt make me do much tweaking to it at all. Stunned. Still. And the damn things are printing as I type. I think we are going to knock his socks off. And I cant fucking wait. He did the same thing with some of the smaller pieces of equipment. Whatever I wanted I was allowed to get. Granted I didnt take severe advantage...but I got a ton of really nice pots & pans and a few toys for the kitchen that make me happy. I almost wish this kitchen was mine. Almost.
We start our first service Friday at 2pm. We are having 4 invitation only mock-service seatings on Friday & Saturday, we are closed Sunday and open for business Monday at 11am. 98% of everything will be perfect (Frigging cable company is refusing to do the install until next week. Thanks Comcast...way to make it easy to do business) and we will be about 10 weeks from demolition to opening the doors. I am sure Ill take some pics, or have the Mister anyway, over the weekend. The place is beautiful. It takes the best features of our last 2 stores and combines them in a beautiful space. With but 1 exception. And anyone who follows me on twitter knows about the fucking chairs. We are going to have a lounge area in the front and these hideous pink floral apolstered ugly ass chairs appeared there that are a part of this furniture grouping. Im unhappy with just about every piece of furniture in that area. There is this awesomely tacky 70s gold couch that is so awful its fabulous...but everything else is total garbage. I had my tantrum about it. I blatantly called it all ugly and just ridiculous. I plead my case. I got mad...I laughed at him. Didnt matter. I know when to stop, so I agreed on a compromise. We would revisit the area in 6 months. Hes afraid we are going to need it for additional tables, I disagree. If it is going to stay a lounge we pick out some new pieces, if its needed as tables we get the tables. That was the only compromise I was going to get...so I took it. I apologize to everyone who has to look at this furniture...but it really wasnt my fault.
Ill prob post some pics after the dinners. I'm nervous...its always nerve racking for me to make a new menu and have to deal with the feedback. I've eaten it, I know if it is good or not...but its still trying on the self assurance those first few nights out of the gate. I think my KM is going to be a bundle of nerves, I think hes going to freak out a little...I can fix that. I think my GM & AGM are also going to loose it a bit, but they'll snap back, they both will just be reminded that what we are doing is the easy part...running restaurants is what we do, and I picked them to do it because they are good at it. All the getting ready shit is the hard part...and then they'll remember and we will trudge through the questions & confusion. Honestly cant wait...this is the pay off for all the work...seeing it all work the way it is supposed to.
Oh what a crazy trip the last month has been...but its almost here.
We also have one hell of a garden rolling at the moment....Im gonna have to remember to post some pics of that too. We haz a broccoli!!! And tomatoes, brussel sprouts, peppers, basil, lettuces, asparagus, garlic, shallots, potatoes, cauliflower, a bunch of herbs....its a very happy garden!
Hope you all have a great weekend...Ill be hollering myself hoarse & loving every minute of it I hope in a busy restaurant kitchen! Woot!!
Showing posts with label The Wizard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Wizard. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Hump Day Musings...
Hope everyone had an amazing weekend & is enjoying this effed up week of weather so far. WTF Mom Nature? Did us yinzers do something to piss you off? Ill be honest, this is far from my least favorite weather...I kinda dig gray cool & rainy. It makes green look so much greener and you can see all the world start to lush out...and I like that. Granted, I do love those crisp bright sunny days as much as any normal person, but I also genuinely enjoy days like the last few that are wet & chilly. Complain all ya want...I personally love the mix of SWPA weather...hence I live here.
Spent all afternoon/evening/night working on the menu for the new store. I cant procrastinate this anymore. We are less than 5 weeks from opening the doors and we cant open with no menu. Ill be honest, Ive been so damn swamped with tedious bullshit that I hadnt really given this menu more than a passing thought - and since I was planning on completely re-conceptualizing the menus for this particular breed of restaurant and that can get time consuming in the lay-out/design department as well as the actually thinking of the menu items area thats a horrible thing. I got The Wizard to let me take this restaurant concept and make it more Chef driven and allow my kitchen mangers to get more involved and have more of a say so in what they are cooking - in my opinion if they genuinely CARE about the food they are putting out it benefits all parties involved. This also means that I can stretch out of the bar food confines The Wizard stuck me in years ago and show him what its like to own a restaurant, not a glorified beer bar. I have no idea why hes all of a sudden willing to listen to me about these few things but I refuse to question...Ill just say thank you jebus! and take what I can get. I was pleasantly surprised by how well it came together from the nothing that was in my head. Im digging the design so far, I think I walked the line between my good taste and The Wizards silly hang ups for him to let it pass. Content wise I lightened it up a lot, removed a lot of items, freshened up some old favorites and took it in a healthier & food centric direction. We shall see what the end result looks like, but for 1 day of super heavy work I was pretty happy...now to just get it finished by the end of the week. Oiy!
All plans for my own thing have been perpetually sidelined at the moment. Between work, home & this new fitness thing Im trying out I just dont have the inclination to work on it. The Mister has had some interesting opportunities present themselves in the last couple weeks and I am tempted to sit back and see what develops with him before I make any moves. I am still totally in love with the idea of my bakery/coffee shop, but the more I am rolling around what I initially planned to do in my head the more I am sure that I am trying to be everything to everyone ~ and that my friends is a recipe for failure. The menu I had written for Mindys was recockulously huge. I had a little bit of all my favorite things to eat & make on there and that is one fuck of a list. Who's going to make it all? And beyond that I have never in my life eaten at a restaurant that was that unfocused, with that broad of a menu, that was able to execute precisely or perfectly. This is a problem. I cant handle half-assery. So I need to streamline the concept. And I just cant decide in which direction I want to trim. Bakery & coffee shop with limited soup/salad/sandwich menu or more cafe style with exceptional coffee? It all comes down to the baking. I either do the bakery, and do it right, spend the time to make what I want to make and make it better than anyone else or I keep it a fast casual cafe style menu. Im leaning toward wanting to go the bakery route. But Im still not 100% sure. And I cant do a damn thing until I am. I think I would love the bakery more. Feel free to chime in with opinions...
But then I had this other EPIC idea that I passed along to my dear sis-in-law that she should leave sunny San Diego with her man & her cats and return east to The Burgh where she can rent the space next door to where I want to open my place and open a funky bookstore! She has a thing for libraries...like currently in grad school to be the Queen of All Things Library, but also happens to be a truly unique human that I, for some unknown reason, have decided really needs to do this. Im not talking about a B&N or that other mega huge cant ever find a goddamn thing and why are there so many people sitting everywhere reading the books they are supposed to be buying at the bookstore bookstores, Im talking about someplace funky, like the Open Mind in Sewickley used to be until he closed it...a bookstore with personality. Yeah I have no idea WTF Im talking about...the only thing I know about books is I like to read them...but I think it would be cool to join the 2 places and create a whole unique space. Now all I have to do is convince her this is brilliant enough to warrant moving back across the country to where it isnt always so sunny with her whole life to jump off a cliff with me...should be sooo easy!
Im off today with no plans outside of Game 7 tonight. There is really nothing pressing I need to do, theres a few chore-y like things I really should do but if I dont they'll still be there tomorrow...I feel like Im playing hookie ;-)
Spent all afternoon/evening/night working on the menu for the new store. I cant procrastinate this anymore. We are less than 5 weeks from opening the doors and we cant open with no menu. Ill be honest, Ive been so damn swamped with tedious bullshit that I hadnt really given this menu more than a passing thought - and since I was planning on completely re-conceptualizing the menus for this particular breed of restaurant and that can get time consuming in the lay-out/design department as well as the actually thinking of the menu items area thats a horrible thing. I got The Wizard to let me take this restaurant concept and make it more Chef driven and allow my kitchen mangers to get more involved and have more of a say so in what they are cooking - in my opinion if they genuinely CARE about the food they are putting out it benefits all parties involved. This also means that I can stretch out of the bar food confines The Wizard stuck me in years ago and show him what its like to own a restaurant, not a glorified beer bar. I have no idea why hes all of a sudden willing to listen to me about these few things but I refuse to question...Ill just say thank you jebus! and take what I can get. I was pleasantly surprised by how well it came together from the nothing that was in my head. Im digging the design so far, I think I walked the line between my good taste and The Wizards silly hang ups for him to let it pass. Content wise I lightened it up a lot, removed a lot of items, freshened up some old favorites and took it in a healthier & food centric direction. We shall see what the end result looks like, but for 1 day of super heavy work I was pretty happy...now to just get it finished by the end of the week. Oiy!
All plans for my own thing have been perpetually sidelined at the moment. Between work, home & this new fitness thing Im trying out I just dont have the inclination to work on it. The Mister has had some interesting opportunities present themselves in the last couple weeks and I am tempted to sit back and see what develops with him before I make any moves. I am still totally in love with the idea of my bakery/coffee shop, but the more I am rolling around what I initially planned to do in my head the more I am sure that I am trying to be everything to everyone ~ and that my friends is a recipe for failure. The menu I had written for Mindys was recockulously huge. I had a little bit of all my favorite things to eat & make on there and that is one fuck of a list. Who's going to make it all? And beyond that I have never in my life eaten at a restaurant that was that unfocused, with that broad of a menu, that was able to execute precisely or perfectly. This is a problem. I cant handle half-assery. So I need to streamline the concept. And I just cant decide in which direction I want to trim. Bakery & coffee shop with limited soup/salad/sandwich menu or more cafe style with exceptional coffee? It all comes down to the baking. I either do the bakery, and do it right, spend the time to make what I want to make and make it better than anyone else or I keep it a fast casual cafe style menu. Im leaning toward wanting to go the bakery route. But Im still not 100% sure. And I cant do a damn thing until I am. I think I would love the bakery more. Feel free to chime in with opinions...
But then I had this other EPIC idea that I passed along to my dear sis-in-law that she should leave sunny San Diego with her man & her cats and return east to The Burgh where she can rent the space next door to where I want to open my place and open a funky bookstore! She has a thing for libraries...like currently in grad school to be the Queen of All Things Library, but also happens to be a truly unique human that I, for some unknown reason, have decided really needs to do this. Im not talking about a B&N or that other mega huge cant ever find a goddamn thing and why are there so many people sitting everywhere reading the books they are supposed to be buying at the bookstore bookstores, Im talking about someplace funky, like the Open Mind in Sewickley used to be until he closed it...a bookstore with personality. Yeah I have no idea WTF Im talking about...the only thing I know about books is I like to read them...but I think it would be cool to join the 2 places and create a whole unique space. Now all I have to do is convince her this is brilliant enough to warrant moving back across the country to where it isnt always so sunny with her whole life to jump off a cliff with me...should be sooo easy!
Im off today with no plans outside of Game 7 tonight. There is really nothing pressing I need to do, theres a few chore-y like things I really should do but if I dont they'll still be there tomorrow...I feel like Im playing hookie ;-)
Monday, April 26, 2010
I'm not wrong...I'm just an asshole!!
So I had originally planned to do a post today about my really not all that miserable first week without Mister at work with me. I prob still will do that post because it's been writing itself in my head for the last couple days and needs to be let out....but THEN The Wizard walks into my office this morning and drops what he thinks is going to be some earth shattering BOMB and it took everything I had NOT to laugh and smile & squeee and I decided this needed to be written instead.
So our company Heath Insurance (HI) rates were scheduled to increase. Yeah - HUGE shock I know...like it doesnt happen every friggin year. And The Wizard wasnt happy about that for obvious reasons, it was something like a 48% rate hike. I agree, RECOCKULOUS, but on the incentive program he offers I dont pay for dick outside of my deductibles & copays so in all honesty I dont give a shit HOW much the rates increase - but therein lies the issue, there are quite a few of us that arent paying for dick which means hes stuck with all of it unless he plans on changing the incentive policy for HI which would cause a jihad I have nooo doubt - I would be leading it. So The Wizard shopped for options with this flake of a woman that he uses for our HI brokering, I will call her Twitball - cuz she is one.
So Twitball tells The Wizard she can get HI at half what we would be paying, +/- 10% once they review the actual policy. The Wizard is all over this. He drafts horridly misspelled letters to all the managers explaining the rate hike and placing it to a vote - we can vote for Option A - keep our really good HI and pay a portion of the premium out of our pockets with no changes to the policy or deductible or Option B go with the lesser policy at the cheaper premium and continue the incentive program. Majority wins. Well shocker!! The staff opted to go with Option B. I, personally wasnt real happy about that, but I understand it from their perspective and if thats what they want, fine, I can deal with it. Note to readers: I have had a manager going through cancer treatments for the last year - The Wizard obviously knows this, and he also knows our rates will be based on the last years claims. To think that we could EVER get sincerely cheap insurance coverage is naive & stupid.
Well Twitball gets out the forms, gets the policy written, sets appointments to go to all the restaurants and talk to the managers this last Saturday about the changes in their coverage and make sure they are cool with the switch that takes place May 1st....2 weeks away. We are all set to roll on the Shitty Health Insurance Express!!! All aboard for crap doctor choices & bottom of the barrel medical care woohoo!!! <--- this is me being very very sarcastic.
So Friday night, like after 8pm Twittball calls The Wizard to tell him that golly gee Wizard the price they quoted was slightly off base...the actual price is 150% higher than the cheapo quote...........yeah so much for +/- 10% huh? Well that actual price was actually HIGHER than the one for the really good insurance....hehehehe! So aside from The Wizard having a minor seizure when Twitball told him she done fucked up (again mind you, we have gone through this with Twitball annually for 4 years now) he made her cancel her appointments to go talk to the store managers and told her he was very disappointed that she led him to believe that this was going to be 60% less than out current insurer option when she really didnt know one way or the other and for waiting until the last possible minute to try to get this all worked out. Well duh Wizard - why do you think she waits - shes incompetent and needs to leave you no other options due to time contraints.
So I guess while he was standing in my doorway in all his Wizardly glory telling me with righteous indignation how upset he is that he now has to be a "man of his word" and cant go back on what he agreed to with his people and he now has an obligation to make good on what he said so he just simply CANT ask us to pay into it now that he was expecting some sympathy? And I guess when he was asking me if I thought it would be ok to increase our deductible to get that premium lowered that he thought I was going to say something along the lines of "well yeah boss if thats whats best for the company" so he may have been slightly taken aback by my "um actually boss I really dont think thats right, its not our fault you got screwed over by Twitball...again" comment instead.
So Im an asshole for gleaming a small amount of joy out of his obvious torture having to fork out so much in benefits for us managers...and I'm also an asshole because I could have hugged him I was so happy to not have to take the crap insurance he was going to switch us to...and yeah Im kind of an asshole too because I LOVE that he continues to deal with Twitball and continues to get screwed over for our health insurance coverage EVERY YEAR. So yeah, it may be kind of wrong of me to be happy about the company having to fork over this much more money for benefits, but in all honesty it couldnt have happened to a nicer prick...and THAT, my dear friends, is why I'm an asshole.
But I'm an asshole that STILL has really good health insurance that Im not having to pay for!
So our company Heath Insurance (HI) rates were scheduled to increase. Yeah - HUGE shock I know...like it doesnt happen every friggin year. And The Wizard wasnt happy about that for obvious reasons, it was something like a 48% rate hike. I agree, RECOCKULOUS, but on the incentive program he offers I dont pay for dick outside of my deductibles & copays so in all honesty I dont give a shit HOW much the rates increase - but therein lies the issue, there are quite a few of us that arent paying for dick which means hes stuck with all of it unless he plans on changing the incentive policy for HI which would cause a jihad I have nooo doubt - I would be leading it. So The Wizard shopped for options with this flake of a woman that he uses for our HI brokering, I will call her Twitball - cuz she is one.
So Twitball tells The Wizard she can get HI at half what we would be paying, +/- 10% once they review the actual policy. The Wizard is all over this. He drafts horridly misspelled letters to all the managers explaining the rate hike and placing it to a vote - we can vote for Option A - keep our really good HI and pay a portion of the premium out of our pockets with no changes to the policy or deductible or Option B go with the lesser policy at the cheaper premium and continue the incentive program. Majority wins. Well shocker!! The staff opted to go with Option B. I, personally wasnt real happy about that, but I understand it from their perspective and if thats what they want, fine, I can deal with it. Note to readers: I have had a manager going through cancer treatments for the last year - The Wizard obviously knows this, and he also knows our rates will be based on the last years claims. To think that we could EVER get sincerely cheap insurance coverage is naive & stupid.
Well Twitball gets out the forms, gets the policy written, sets appointments to go to all the restaurants and talk to the managers this last Saturday about the changes in their coverage and make sure they are cool with the switch that takes place May 1st....2 weeks away. We are all set to roll on the Shitty Health Insurance Express!!! All aboard for crap doctor choices & bottom of the barrel medical care woohoo!!! <--- this is me being very very sarcastic.
So Friday night, like after 8pm Twittball calls The Wizard to tell him that golly gee Wizard the price they quoted was slightly off base...the actual price is 150% higher than the cheapo quote...........yeah so much for +/- 10% huh? Well that actual price was actually HIGHER than the one for the really good insurance....hehehehe! So aside from The Wizard having a minor seizure when Twitball told him she done fucked up (again mind you, we have gone through this with Twitball annually for 4 years now) he made her cancel her appointments to go talk to the store managers and told her he was very disappointed that she led him to believe that this was going to be 60% less than out current insurer option when she really didnt know one way or the other and for waiting until the last possible minute to try to get this all worked out. Well duh Wizard - why do you think she waits - shes incompetent and needs to leave you no other options due to time contraints.
So I guess while he was standing in my doorway in all his Wizardly glory telling me with righteous indignation how upset he is that he now has to be a "man of his word" and cant go back on what he agreed to with his people and he now has an obligation to make good on what he said so he just simply CANT ask us to pay into it now that he was expecting some sympathy? And I guess when he was asking me if I thought it would be ok to increase our deductible to get that premium lowered that he thought I was going to say something along the lines of "well yeah boss if thats whats best for the company" so he may have been slightly taken aback by my "um actually boss I really dont think thats right, its not our fault you got screwed over by Twitball...again" comment instead.
So Im an asshole for gleaming a small amount of joy out of his obvious torture having to fork out so much in benefits for us managers...and I'm also an asshole because I could have hugged him I was so happy to not have to take the crap insurance he was going to switch us to...and yeah Im kind of an asshole too because I LOVE that he continues to deal with Twitball and continues to get screwed over for our health insurance coverage EVERY YEAR. So yeah, it may be kind of wrong of me to be happy about the company having to fork over this much more money for benefits, but in all honesty it couldnt have happened to a nicer prick...and THAT, my dear friends, is why I'm an asshole.
But I'm an asshole that STILL has really good health insurance that Im not having to pay for!
Monday, April 12, 2010
ISO: Anwers!!!
Well I hope everyone had a fantabulous weekend! I was actually off both days, took only a very few work calls that were necessary and relaxed enough that I slept through the night last night into today...thats actually a pretty epic score. Generally speaking I spend Sunday night lying in bed, trying to sleep, getting myself all properly stressed out for Monday...cuz ya know starting every week tired & strung out is always a great idea! Well at least this week I am not tired....well mostly.
Good news?!?! Oh yeah I have some good news! So me & the Mister almost finished the retaining wall that we need to have in so we can plant the garden. We will have to go pick up ONE more load of bricks from Lane Block to complete the wall then we need a truck ton of dirt so I can lay out and plant. I got some more veggies & strawberries too! All told this is going to be a pretty ambitious project/garden seeing as I haven't ever in my life sincerely tended a garden. My parents have like 10 green thumbs between them...I on the other hand dont seem to have any. Its a running joke with the Mister actually that I can kill any plant I am given. Lucky for me I have stepped to the challenge and have successfully kept alive a rubber tree, spider plant a few miscellaneous other things for over a year so I am feeling pretty confident that I can pull this off with Mister's help. Its not a lack of ability, it that I forget to care for the little buggers and they die. Either way I am excited as hell to have this project for the summer. I have about 20 different little started plants to get into the ground and I should have one hell of a take this summer & fall. I do love the Farmers Markets but there is something to be said for growing it all at home yourself! On a side note anyone who needs or wants to buy good block for a project like this I highly recommend Lane Block in Carnegie. They are a bit off the beaten path, but are 1/3 the cost of all of the big chain home improvement places, super great to deal with and make good products. This thing would have cost us somewhere in the ballpark of $900 if we had done it at Home Depot or Lowes, it has run us less than half of that with all materials AND you support a local business instead of a national chain....that alone is enough for me!
So this is also Mister's last week at his current job with me. He put his notice in a few weeks ago and is going to be moving on to an easier gig for the moment that will give him some time to regroup after working with the Wizard for this long. I have very mixed emotions about this move. Mostly I am really happy for him though, and just amazingly sad for me. I am happy for him because I have already watched this job just about destroy him, our marriage & lives once and knowing that it isnt going to happen again makes my heart feel good, just seeing how much happier he is after making the decision and DOING it makes me ecstatic for him, knowing that there are great things on the horizon for him in the future and that he will accomplish them because he isnt going to be so beaten and defeated by this job is a huge plus for him and us....all of these things are reasons to be excited for him and looking forward to moving on and taking our lives back from the Wizard....
But the other side of this coin...Im still here. Im still dealing with the Wizard. I get to continue to smash my head in the car door trying to make it all fit for my delusional boss. I know. Its my choice, and one that is weighing heavily on me at the moment. This sense of obligation I feel to fix this for the Wizard and make sure he is ok is ridiculous. I have no idea where it comes from. I am going to blame my father, actually. I inherited his infinite martyrdom and its why I have such a hard time doing things for me when I feel that I am needed. I thrive on being needed, its a very large part of who I am and what makes me good at what I do...but at what cost?
Ive been wrestling with this since Mister gave notice. I would fuck the Wizard if I left. Would it be the end of him? Hell no...this place existed long before I got here and will continue well after I leave...I know no one is irreplaceable. Would it level a crippling blow? Oh most definitely. The kids have been pretty quiet about Mister's exit. There have been some rumblings, but they all know that he has been majorly unhappy...my exit would raise more eyebrows for sure and probably start an exodus as folks looked for new jobs. That really isnt my problem though. So to decide....do I stay here? Do I keep fighting for my people? The ONLY reason I am even having this much trouble is that I feel obligated to keep at this for my people. The people who work for me, the people who suck their shit through a straw, keep up with his absurd micromanagement, keep showing up, working hard and making my restaurants run. The people that I respect, like and would jump in front of a bus for because they would do it for me in a minute. A lot of us have been together for years now and there is a large part of me that feels like I am abandoning them with the Wizard and leaving them to fail, and thats the part I am having trouble stomaching. I KNOW they would all understand, they see what I do how thin I am spread and how difficult it is to do the 3 jobs I do and they help me all they can and I dont think one of them really gets why I keep doing it. They are why I do it. I do it because they do it and we are a team. But I dont think that is good enough.
So I have a decision to make. And Ill be honest rarely does it take me long to make any important decisions...weigh the facts and make a call, but this one isnt so easy. Money I am not worried about. Its just money. I work hard and can find a way to make it work. We have been broke before and its not the end of the world. Jobs in this industry are easy to come by and I can always find a way to make some money...even if its less than I'm making now. Budgets can be reworked and we will muddle through this. My problem? This job saps the life out of me and makes it very hard to be excited about anything else...which makes completing a business plan and finding money to open my place almost impossible. It literally just sucks the life out of me...emotionally, physically & mentally. I know in my heart that the only way I get my own place is to leave here. That I am not going to get this off the ground with or without investors as long as I am beating my head against a wall in this place.
Oh I wish it was as easy as making a decision. I wish it was as easy as just doing what I want to do and selfishly doing whats best for me. I wish I was better at being selfish about things that really matter. I wish that I could just say fuck it and mean it and walk away without feeling responsible for all of these people. I wish I wish I wish.....but wishing isnt going to fix this bullshit mess I call a job.
What to do...the question of the ages. How long will I make it without Mister here? Do I have the ability to not get fed up with the shit storm Im about to face and NOT walk out at some point? Oh I probably do...I am nothing if not strong enough to stay standing and stupid enough to keep taking it in the face...but the real question is do I want to? The answer is NO - I do not.
Now to decide do I keep at it until the Wizard is stable and the new place is open or do I do whats best for my mental & physical health and walk away? This is really the struggle. I do not want to fuck him over...sincerely I do not. Part of that is selfish, my name has been attached to this place and him for almost a decade, I dont want the house of cards to collapse and have my name associated with it in any way and make me look bad. But on the other hand I know in my heart & mind that if I dont just make the call and do it that one thing will roll into another and 1 year from now I am going to be sitting here trying to figure out how another year went by and I am still doing the same damn thing I was doing a year ago. We will never be optimally staffed because the Wizard is a cheap fucker and we will STILL be perpetually hiring the wrong people because that is all we can afford. There will always be an event or some other hullabaloo that will need organized-set up-executed. There will always be the next big thing on the horizon. There will always be a reason that I will be needed, and a reason to back burner what I want, and a reason to not jump.
I had at first thought it was fear...but I am not scared to fail. I know that I wont, thats just not my style. Then I thought it was fear of HIS failure...and that is a large part of it. I have invested years of my life, quarts of my bloods, gallons of my sweat and tears into these places and for it to fail after all that is just infuriating. But I think when it comes down to it that the only thing holding me back is obligation & a sense of responsibility to a boss who only has his own best interests at heart and a staff who has followed & supported me for years. I dont want to screw my peeps over...but I do every day anyway because of how tightly he's got my hands tied and how thinly I am spread.
My questions to you dear readers.....are my perceived obligations to the Wizard & my staff genuine? Is it wrong of me to cut & run after this many years and this far into a new project? Granted I prob wouldnt go until the opening is all secured, but notice would be given and I would be out soon there after. Am I deluding myself via my sense of obligation and is it really this is just me too scared to jump off the fucking cliff and leave my safety zone? These are but a sampling of the questions that spend their time bouncing around my skull...and I am genuinely interested to hear outside opinions with what limited knowledge you have. There is something to be said for unbiased opinions...and I am definitely actively searching for some. I am not real good at selfish...but I think it may be time for one of those big 'ol "Fuck you man! This is for me!!!" moments....
Another HAPPY NEWS!!! Perfected my chocolate chip cookie recipe....and THAT makes me happy as all hell! Another recipe locked down after much trial & error. SMILES!!
I hope you all are having a far less trying Monday than me...or at east one with more answers than questions anyway.
Good news?!?! Oh yeah I have some good news! So me & the Mister almost finished the retaining wall that we need to have in so we can plant the garden. We will have to go pick up ONE more load of bricks from Lane Block to complete the wall then we need a truck ton of dirt so I can lay out and plant. I got some more veggies & strawberries too! All told this is going to be a pretty ambitious project/garden seeing as I haven't ever in my life sincerely tended a garden. My parents have like 10 green thumbs between them...I on the other hand dont seem to have any. Its a running joke with the Mister actually that I can kill any plant I am given. Lucky for me I have stepped to the challenge and have successfully kept alive a rubber tree, spider plant a few miscellaneous other things for over a year so I am feeling pretty confident that I can pull this off with Mister's help. Its not a lack of ability, it that I forget to care for the little buggers and they die. Either way I am excited as hell to have this project for the summer. I have about 20 different little started plants to get into the ground and I should have one hell of a take this summer & fall. I do love the Farmers Markets but there is something to be said for growing it all at home yourself! On a side note anyone who needs or wants to buy good block for a project like this I highly recommend Lane Block in Carnegie. They are a bit off the beaten path, but are 1/3 the cost of all of the big chain home improvement places, super great to deal with and make good products. This thing would have cost us somewhere in the ballpark of $900 if we had done it at Home Depot or Lowes, it has run us less than half of that with all materials AND you support a local business instead of a national chain....that alone is enough for me!
So this is also Mister's last week at his current job with me. He put his notice in a few weeks ago and is going to be moving on to an easier gig for the moment that will give him some time to regroup after working with the Wizard for this long. I have very mixed emotions about this move. Mostly I am really happy for him though, and just amazingly sad for me. I am happy for him because I have already watched this job just about destroy him, our marriage & lives once and knowing that it isnt going to happen again makes my heart feel good, just seeing how much happier he is after making the decision and DOING it makes me ecstatic for him, knowing that there are great things on the horizon for him in the future and that he will accomplish them because he isnt going to be so beaten and defeated by this job is a huge plus for him and us....all of these things are reasons to be excited for him and looking forward to moving on and taking our lives back from the Wizard....
But the other side of this coin...Im still here. Im still dealing with the Wizard. I get to continue to smash my head in the car door trying to make it all fit for my delusional boss. I know. Its my choice, and one that is weighing heavily on me at the moment. This sense of obligation I feel to fix this for the Wizard and make sure he is ok is ridiculous. I have no idea where it comes from. I am going to blame my father, actually. I inherited his infinite martyrdom and its why I have such a hard time doing things for me when I feel that I am needed. I thrive on being needed, its a very large part of who I am and what makes me good at what I do...but at what cost?
Ive been wrestling with this since Mister gave notice. I would fuck the Wizard if I left. Would it be the end of him? Hell no...this place existed long before I got here and will continue well after I leave...I know no one is irreplaceable. Would it level a crippling blow? Oh most definitely. The kids have been pretty quiet about Mister's exit. There have been some rumblings, but they all know that he has been majorly unhappy...my exit would raise more eyebrows for sure and probably start an exodus as folks looked for new jobs. That really isnt my problem though. So to decide....do I stay here? Do I keep fighting for my people? The ONLY reason I am even having this much trouble is that I feel obligated to keep at this for my people. The people who work for me, the people who suck their shit through a straw, keep up with his absurd micromanagement, keep showing up, working hard and making my restaurants run. The people that I respect, like and would jump in front of a bus for because they would do it for me in a minute. A lot of us have been together for years now and there is a large part of me that feels like I am abandoning them with the Wizard and leaving them to fail, and thats the part I am having trouble stomaching. I KNOW they would all understand, they see what I do how thin I am spread and how difficult it is to do the 3 jobs I do and they help me all they can and I dont think one of them really gets why I keep doing it. They are why I do it. I do it because they do it and we are a team. But I dont think that is good enough.
So I have a decision to make. And Ill be honest rarely does it take me long to make any important decisions...weigh the facts and make a call, but this one isnt so easy. Money I am not worried about. Its just money. I work hard and can find a way to make it work. We have been broke before and its not the end of the world. Jobs in this industry are easy to come by and I can always find a way to make some money...even if its less than I'm making now. Budgets can be reworked and we will muddle through this. My problem? This job saps the life out of me and makes it very hard to be excited about anything else...which makes completing a business plan and finding money to open my place almost impossible. It literally just sucks the life out of me...emotionally, physically & mentally. I know in my heart that the only way I get my own place is to leave here. That I am not going to get this off the ground with or without investors as long as I am beating my head against a wall in this place.
Oh I wish it was as easy as making a decision. I wish it was as easy as just doing what I want to do and selfishly doing whats best for me. I wish I was better at being selfish about things that really matter. I wish that I could just say fuck it and mean it and walk away without feeling responsible for all of these people. I wish I wish I wish.....but wishing isnt going to fix this bullshit mess I call a job.
What to do...the question of the ages. How long will I make it without Mister here? Do I have the ability to not get fed up with the shit storm Im about to face and NOT walk out at some point? Oh I probably do...I am nothing if not strong enough to stay standing and stupid enough to keep taking it in the face...but the real question is do I want to? The answer is NO - I do not.
Now to decide do I keep at it until the Wizard is stable and the new place is open or do I do whats best for my mental & physical health and walk away? This is really the struggle. I do not want to fuck him over...sincerely I do not. Part of that is selfish, my name has been attached to this place and him for almost a decade, I dont want the house of cards to collapse and have my name associated with it in any way and make me look bad. But on the other hand I know in my heart & mind that if I dont just make the call and do it that one thing will roll into another and 1 year from now I am going to be sitting here trying to figure out how another year went by and I am still doing the same damn thing I was doing a year ago. We will never be optimally staffed because the Wizard is a cheap fucker and we will STILL be perpetually hiring the wrong people because that is all we can afford. There will always be an event or some other hullabaloo that will need organized-set up-executed. There will always be the next big thing on the horizon. There will always be a reason that I will be needed, and a reason to back burner what I want, and a reason to not jump.
I had at first thought it was fear...but I am not scared to fail. I know that I wont, thats just not my style. Then I thought it was fear of HIS failure...and that is a large part of it. I have invested years of my life, quarts of my bloods, gallons of my sweat and tears into these places and for it to fail after all that is just infuriating. But I think when it comes down to it that the only thing holding me back is obligation & a sense of responsibility to a boss who only has his own best interests at heart and a staff who has followed & supported me for years. I dont want to screw my peeps over...but I do every day anyway because of how tightly he's got my hands tied and how thinly I am spread.
My questions to you dear readers.....are my perceived obligations to the Wizard & my staff genuine? Is it wrong of me to cut & run after this many years and this far into a new project? Granted I prob wouldnt go until the opening is all secured, but notice would be given and I would be out soon there after. Am I deluding myself via my sense of obligation and is it really this is just me too scared to jump off the fucking cliff and leave my safety zone? These are but a sampling of the questions that spend their time bouncing around my skull...and I am genuinely interested to hear outside opinions with what limited knowledge you have. There is something to be said for unbiased opinions...and I am definitely actively searching for some. I am not real good at selfish...but I think it may be time for one of those big 'ol "Fuck you man! This is for me!!!" moments....
Another HAPPY NEWS!!! Perfected my chocolate chip cookie recipe....and THAT makes me happy as all hell! Another recipe locked down after much trial & error. SMILES!!
I hope you all are having a far less trying Monday than me...or at east one with more answers than questions anyway.
Friday, March 26, 2010
FUNK!
I totally should have written this yesterday while I was off...but I didn't. Instead I spent my day screwing around with the pups, running a few errands, gym-shopping-dinner with the Mister then sleep...all in all a nice day off really and I made this bumpin marinated pasta/veggie/feta salad for dinner that was kind of healthy when topped with some grilled chicken tenders in a tangy red wine vinaigrette. Pretty delicious!
I've been having a FUNK week. Actually probably more like 2 weeks. Ok, realistically it's probably been more like the last year, but the last 2 weeks have been pretty brutal. Its been the kind of March that pretty much makes me want to curl up in a ball somewhere and weep or (and this is definitely more my style) start shooting and ask questions later. Lucky for all I am not a truly violent person & I have learned to control my homicidal urges...
So I finally went to the doc about the excessive neck & back pain that I was chalking up to stress...i NEVER have a shortage of that and in the last couple months its been bad. Turns out that after some xrays & an MRI I apparently have some kind of cysts on the nerve endings near my neck that are the cause of this pain. Stress definitely wont help the situation, but its the root cause as far as I know...thats kinda good news! I'll be honest here, I've been entirely too chicken to Google it. Im sure there is a wealth of information out there that I could acquire, but Mister hasnt sent me any links & Ive always taken a "it's probably better if I dont know then I wont have to worry" attitude in situations like this. Yes, I am painfully aware this is somewhat stupid, but its not like I can fix this with the Google & I really dont need to be obsessing about what kind of cancer I have until JUNE 14th (yes thats right, JUNE 14th) which is the soonest I could get in to the neurologist my doc referred me to. Three months. Yeah, fuck the google...id really rather not drive myself batty in the next 3 months worrying. Side note- I am working on trying to get it all moving faster, so I will try some other neurologists if I cant get this one to bump my appt. I cant be in this kind of random pain until June. Nosireebob!
Work can basically suck my ass. I can honestly say that for the first time in 9.5 years with this company I sincerely had to talk myself back into my office. I'm not a quitter by nature, but it really and truly took all I had to convince myself that I was going to FUCK myself hardcore if I got up and walked out of there last Tuesday. Even my most reliable, in the voice of my mother of course, nagging about my responsibilities and obligations did nothing to stop the myriad of justifications I had for just disappearing from my desk never to return with a simple "Sorry, I cant take this bullshit anymore. Gone NUTSO! XOXO Mindy" note on the desk. There were 2 things that made me stay. Two. 9.5 years at this place and I could only think of 2 reasons to not walk. 1) Health Insurance. With all the shit going on with my back & neck and knowing that there may possibly really be something wrong I cant afford not to have it and cant afford to pay Cobra $400 a month to keep it. That fucking SUCKS. 2) I dont know that I would be able to look myself in the eye knowing that I did that. That I walked away just like that. That it beat me. That I quit. Ive struggled with quitting this job for a long time, and even though I plan to do so at some point this year a very small part of me still feels like it is because the place and job beat me. I KNOW in my head that it hasnt, this is just not what I want out of my career/life, by in my heart it still feels that way. I also know in my head that admitting that the job beat me isnt the end of the world and is irrelevant in the grand scheme...but I also HATE that it may have beaten me, I dont really get beaten at things that matter, at least not thus far... I will wrestle this into submission, knowing that the job may not have beaten me, but the jackass I work for, in all of his infinite wisdom and confusing-makes-no-sense bullshit, did. And that for some reason bothers me a lot less. The most apt comparison I can make is that working with/for The Wizard is most often the equivalent of working for The Joker (preferably the Heath Ledger version if you please). He is an agent of chaos, there is no logic to how his mind works, no consistency to his actions and no stop to his frustrating games. You cant beat this kind of person mainly because the game changes on a whim...and that I do understand in my heart and my head.
We are planting a garden this year!!! Mister has the walls we need to put up roped off, the little seedlings are all planted & growing quite well and Im excited. We are going to have a ton of fresh veggies! Tomatoes, zucchini, green beans, snap peas, japanese radish, carrots, a shit ton of fresh herbs and a bunch of other things Im not remembering. Cant wait to get it constructed so I can map it out and get it planted. I always liked gardening with my dad, we shall see if I remember what he taught me and if I can grow my garden as well as his will be...shit I might even try recruiting a little help ;-)
Im filling in on line this weekend at one of the restaurants (this was item #27 that almost made me walk Tuesday) so that should be entertaining. I dont have to do that very often, and when I do I am usually pretty amazed at how quick it comes back, the flow, movement, pace...and I enjoy it. Its the kind of work you just have to do, not THINK about it. And I think thats the kind of work I can get behind about now.
I've been having a FUNK week. Actually probably more like 2 weeks. Ok, realistically it's probably been more like the last year, but the last 2 weeks have been pretty brutal. Its been the kind of March that pretty much makes me want to curl up in a ball somewhere and weep or (and this is definitely more my style) start shooting and ask questions later. Lucky for all I am not a truly violent person & I have learned to control my homicidal urges...
So I finally went to the doc about the excessive neck & back pain that I was chalking up to stress...i NEVER have a shortage of that and in the last couple months its been bad. Turns out that after some xrays & an MRI I apparently have some kind of cysts on the nerve endings near my neck that are the cause of this pain. Stress definitely wont help the situation, but its the root cause as far as I know...thats kinda good news! I'll be honest here, I've been entirely too chicken to Google it. Im sure there is a wealth of information out there that I could acquire, but Mister hasnt sent me any links & Ive always taken a "it's probably better if I dont know then I wont have to worry" attitude in situations like this. Yes, I am painfully aware this is somewhat stupid, but its not like I can fix this with the Google & I really dont need to be obsessing about what kind of cancer I have until JUNE 14th (yes thats right, JUNE 14th) which is the soonest I could get in to the neurologist my doc referred me to. Three months. Yeah, fuck the google...id really rather not drive myself batty in the next 3 months worrying. Side note- I am working on trying to get it all moving faster, so I will try some other neurologists if I cant get this one to bump my appt. I cant be in this kind of random pain until June. Nosireebob!
Work can basically suck my ass. I can honestly say that for the first time in 9.5 years with this company I sincerely had to talk myself back into my office. I'm not a quitter by nature, but it really and truly took all I had to convince myself that I was going to FUCK myself hardcore if I got up and walked out of there last Tuesday. Even my most reliable, in the voice of my mother of course, nagging about my responsibilities and obligations did nothing to stop the myriad of justifications I had for just disappearing from my desk never to return with a simple "Sorry, I cant take this bullshit anymore. Gone NUTSO! XOXO Mindy" note on the desk. There were 2 things that made me stay. Two. 9.5 years at this place and I could only think of 2 reasons to not walk. 1) Health Insurance. With all the shit going on with my back & neck and knowing that there may possibly really be something wrong I cant afford not to have it and cant afford to pay Cobra $400 a month to keep it. That fucking SUCKS. 2) I dont know that I would be able to look myself in the eye knowing that I did that. That I walked away just like that. That it beat me. That I quit. Ive struggled with quitting this job for a long time, and even though I plan to do so at some point this year a very small part of me still feels like it is because the place and job beat me. I KNOW in my head that it hasnt, this is just not what I want out of my career/life, by in my heart it still feels that way. I also know in my head that admitting that the job beat me isnt the end of the world and is irrelevant in the grand scheme...but I also HATE that it may have beaten me, I dont really get beaten at things that matter, at least not thus far... I will wrestle this into submission, knowing that the job may not have beaten me, but the jackass I work for, in all of his infinite wisdom and confusing-makes-no-sense bullshit, did. And that for some reason bothers me a lot less. The most apt comparison I can make is that working with/for The Wizard is most often the equivalent of working for The Joker (preferably the Heath Ledger version if you please). He is an agent of chaos, there is no logic to how his mind works, no consistency to his actions and no stop to his frustrating games. You cant beat this kind of person mainly because the game changes on a whim...and that I do understand in my heart and my head.
We are planting a garden this year!!! Mister has the walls we need to put up roped off, the little seedlings are all planted & growing quite well and Im excited. We are going to have a ton of fresh veggies! Tomatoes, zucchini, green beans, snap peas, japanese radish, carrots, a shit ton of fresh herbs and a bunch of other things Im not remembering. Cant wait to get it constructed so I can map it out and get it planted. I always liked gardening with my dad, we shall see if I remember what he taught me and if I can grow my garden as well as his will be...shit I might even try recruiting a little help ;-)
Im filling in on line this weekend at one of the restaurants (this was item #27 that almost made me walk Tuesday) so that should be entertaining. I dont have to do that very often, and when I do I am usually pretty amazed at how quick it comes back, the flow, movement, pace...and I enjoy it. Its the kind of work you just have to do, not THINK about it. And I think thats the kind of work I can get behind about now.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Happy Girl Dance!!!
It was another shitty day in a string of shitty days. There are going to be a lot of those in my immediate future. I'm ok with that, really. Its one of those things that I really cant do much about without making some ridiculously impulsive and stupid move that won't be at all helpful, just stupid. I'm know to be many things, but I'm pretty damn sure stupid isn't one of them...or at least if it is I'm blissfully unaware of it and that's good enough for me.
Work just sucks. And I'm not going to launch into some diatribe about it...there's really no point, so I'll just sum it up. We are wicked short staffed management wise, both me & the Mister are having to do a fuck ton of shift cover just to make sure we have openers and closers and whatnot while training a couple of new managers. None of those shifts will make our regular work go away, it's just going to postpone it to a much later, amazingly overwhelming & messy date. Add to that an ever increasing list of things The Wizard (apt new nickname for the Boss courtesy of a friend) wants taken care of, the things I really do have to do, and the other restaurants that also require attention and you've got what I like to call a KLUSTERFUCK! And honestly that little list over there is nothing compared to the REAL one that I haven't yet had the time to compile that will actually give me a well defined look at exactly how fucked I am. I think the list's lack of creation is equal parts no fucking time and I really don't want to know. Right now I know I've got myself, albeit with some assistance from various parties, so far in the weeds I don't even know if I know which way is out...but I'll figure it out. It quite frankly just blows goats. And it'll be over soon enough, but you can sure as shit bet that as soon as this quagmire is all cleaned up it'll be some other bog I wander into, nature of the restaurant beast I'm afraid. But like I said, it is what it is, no point wallowing in it, so I find my silver linings. Its the closest one to my house so quick ass commute...WIN! The staffing woes are due to a not so tragic loss we shall nickname Bitchface~ so thats done and that was best for every single party involved...WIN! I genuinely like the staff and the restaurant so its not painful, just irritating...WIN! So its not so totally awful I can't stand doing the shift cover, the point of ~ tension shall we say, is that I am not doing any of my work, and that stack just keeps growing, but all my office time is spent catching up on what I HAVE to do...and that is rarely what The Wizard wants me doing.
So I got a few annoying emails from our not so pleasant bookkeeper about invoicing some bullshit to somewhere and I had to do it RIGHT NOW because we had never done it in 5 years but it was all of a sudden, and for no obvious reasons, suddenly very important that we start doing it IMMEDIATELY....and then began a flurry of emails these need to be transferred at $XX each, stupid shit and I got annoyed and may have kind of sort of yelled at The Wizard. Long story much shorter I told him I was not even getting what I had to do done and if it was that fucking important for this to be done she could take care of it her damn self but if I got one more terse email about some stupid fucking garbage can I was going to blow my stack. I think I also may have told him that it was epic bullshit and that if he or she thought I could just extract a fucking invoicing system for about 150 different items from my ass, have it implemented and working at the drop of a hat he was high. Oh, yeah, and a buncha other shit about a myriad of other things that have pissed me off in the last couple weeks. I'll give him this...he stood there and took it. I was swearing, I was pissed, I was completely for real and mostly outta line. He stood there, decided that the invoicing thing could be done over the course of this year, we would plan to implement by the beginning of next year so we did it for the full year, agreed with all my other issues (not that that means much, he usually agrees, he doesn't do anything about it), talked about some things he had planned to do tomorrow and then went home.
I left shortly thereafter, annoyed and all sorts of irritated & frustrated. Just MEH! Honestly not shocking, about par for the course really. I was a bitch, and maybe for a good reason, but mostly because I wanted to be. I don't function well when I'm spread this thin, no one does really, and he is not helping or even just shutting the hell up. It would be helpful if he did, I always take care of my shit one way or another and he knows that so leave me the fuck alone. I'm on it...mostly. It's not like we are reinventing the wheel or saving lives. The bare minimum will get done, we will scrape by and he will make his money. So yeah, KLUSTERUCK!
Oh, yeah, and Mister's car went into the shop yesterday with some brake issues as yet to be diagnosed so we are with my car so that's fun. Going to be AWESOME!!! when I have to go out at 1am and go pick him up tonight...he's closing. YAY! <--- insert dripping sarcasm here
So I get home finally, find a box for Mister on the porch and am greeted by my ever so happy to see me and always makes your heart feel better puppies. I text Mister that he got a present from Amazon. He tells me that HE didn't, I did. I don't remember ordering anything, and was informed that it was ordered for me. That means present. I LOOOVE presents - fuck, who doesnt?!? So I ask if I can open it and yes I can! Mister said I CAN open it. I really found that kind of surprising. Usually I think he tells me I can't just because he knows I will listen and NOT open it, but that it will taunt me until I can and that amuses him. So I walked the dogs & then opened my box.
On top was a book I had heard about & mentioned I wanted, Mister had assessed it wasn't published yet (he's part google, ya know) and I had honestly mostly forgotten about it. Well apparently he didnt and he'd gotten it for me. I was wicked happy...and yet another reason Mister rocks~he remembers things like that!! So I pull the book out and notice this odd box thing, take it out, look at it quickly and figure out I don't know what it is therefor it must not be mine and put it on the table. Puppy makes a grab for the pillow plastic doohickythingies in the box and in the process I see ANOTHER thing in the box. So I look to see what this thing might be, it was just a small white box. I look at it and take off the paper and inside is an iTouch, I was confuzzled, he has an iTouch. So I grab the other box and its the rubber thingy that the iTouch lives in and its purple. Purple=MINE! I think i said Holy FUCK! to the dogs and texted Mister a wow...wtf?!?!? He says its just a present for v-day, just cuz & as a congrats for getting started on my business....and THAT'S why my hubby is the #1 ever!
Not to mention impeccable by accident timing for delivery of presents on really shitty days. Its really cool that he got me an iTouch, I really dug his and its just cool. It's even better he got the book, that's some pretty damn good paying attention skills there Mister. The very bestest part? He just did it because he knew I would love both & wanted to. He didn't do anything that warranted an expensive I'm sorry nor does he want anything that I'm aware of...he's just awesome.
So thats how my day went from dumb dumb stoopid dumb dumb to HAPPY GIRL DANCE!!!
And for the record I've been using my time with Mister closing to work on my business plan. I've made some pretty good headway so yes, I may be tired, but I'm tired from staying up too late working on that. I think I can live with that kind of tired...it's a productive for ME tired.
And totally off track ~ but I think Olympic Cross Country Skiing could sincerely be one of the most BORING things I've ever had the misfortune to watch. It's on as I'm finishing this, it is just boring.
I'm going to play with my iTouch some more and see what I can figure out before I hand it over to Mister to get it all set up with whatever it is I need on there ;-)
Work just sucks. And I'm not going to launch into some diatribe about it...there's really no point, so I'll just sum it up. We are wicked short staffed management wise, both me & the Mister are having to do a fuck ton of shift cover just to make sure we have openers and closers and whatnot while training a couple of new managers. None of those shifts will make our regular work go away, it's just going to postpone it to a much later, amazingly overwhelming & messy date. Add to that an ever increasing list of things The Wizard (apt new nickname for the Boss courtesy of a friend) wants taken care of, the things I really do have to do, and the other restaurants that also require attention and you've got what I like to call a KLUSTERFUCK! And honestly that little list over there is nothing compared to the REAL one that I haven't yet had the time to compile that will actually give me a well defined look at exactly how fucked I am. I think the list's lack of creation is equal parts no fucking time and I really don't want to know. Right now I know I've got myself, albeit with some assistance from various parties, so far in the weeds I don't even know if I know which way is out...but I'll figure it out. It quite frankly just blows goats. And it'll be over soon enough, but you can sure as shit bet that as soon as this quagmire is all cleaned up it'll be some other bog I wander into, nature of the restaurant beast I'm afraid. But like I said, it is what it is, no point wallowing in it, so I find my silver linings. Its the closest one to my house so quick ass commute...WIN! The staffing woes are due to a not so tragic loss we shall nickname Bitchface~ so thats done and that was best for every single party involved...WIN! I genuinely like the staff and the restaurant so its not painful, just irritating...WIN! So its not so totally awful I can't stand doing the shift cover, the point of ~ tension shall we say, is that I am not doing any of my work, and that stack just keeps growing, but all my office time is spent catching up on what I HAVE to do...and that is rarely what The Wizard wants me doing.
So I got a few annoying emails from our not so pleasant bookkeeper about invoicing some bullshit to somewhere and I had to do it RIGHT NOW because we had never done it in 5 years but it was all of a sudden, and for no obvious reasons, suddenly very important that we start doing it IMMEDIATELY....and then began a flurry of emails these need to be transferred at $XX each, stupid shit and I got annoyed and may have kind of sort of yelled at The Wizard. Long story much shorter I told him I was not even getting what I had to do done and if it was that fucking important for this to be done she could take care of it her damn self but if I got one more terse email about some stupid fucking garbage can I was going to blow my stack. I think I also may have told him that it was epic bullshit and that if he or she thought I could just extract a fucking invoicing system for about 150 different items from my ass, have it implemented and working at the drop of a hat he was high. Oh, yeah, and a buncha other shit about a myriad of other things that have pissed me off in the last couple weeks. I'll give him this...he stood there and took it. I was swearing, I was pissed, I was completely for real and mostly outta line. He stood there, decided that the invoicing thing could be done over the course of this year, we would plan to implement by the beginning of next year so we did it for the full year, agreed with all my other issues (not that that means much, he usually agrees, he doesn't do anything about it), talked about some things he had planned to do tomorrow and then went home.
I left shortly thereafter, annoyed and all sorts of irritated & frustrated. Just MEH! Honestly not shocking, about par for the course really. I was a bitch, and maybe for a good reason, but mostly because I wanted to be. I don't function well when I'm spread this thin, no one does really, and he is not helping or even just shutting the hell up. It would be helpful if he did, I always take care of my shit one way or another and he knows that so leave me the fuck alone. I'm on it...mostly. It's not like we are reinventing the wheel or saving lives. The bare minimum will get done, we will scrape by and he will make his money. So yeah, KLUSTERUCK!
Oh, yeah, and Mister's car went into the shop yesterday with some brake issues as yet to be diagnosed so we are with my car so that's fun. Going to be AWESOME!!! when I have to go out at 1am and go pick him up tonight...he's closing. YAY! <--- insert dripping sarcasm here
So I get home finally, find a box for Mister on the porch and am greeted by my ever so happy to see me and always makes your heart feel better puppies. I text Mister that he got a present from Amazon. He tells me that HE didn't, I did. I don't remember ordering anything, and was informed that it was ordered for me. That means present. I LOOOVE presents - fuck, who doesnt?!? So I ask if I can open it and yes I can! Mister said I CAN open it. I really found that kind of surprising. Usually I think he tells me I can't just because he knows I will listen and NOT open it, but that it will taunt me until I can and that amuses him. So I walked the dogs & then opened my box.
On top was a book I had heard about & mentioned I wanted, Mister had assessed it wasn't published yet (he's part google, ya know) and I had honestly mostly forgotten about it. Well apparently he didnt and he'd gotten it for me. I was wicked happy...and yet another reason Mister rocks~he remembers things like that!! So I pull the book out and notice this odd box thing, take it out, look at it quickly and figure out I don't know what it is therefor it must not be mine and put it on the table. Puppy makes a grab for the pillow plastic doohickythingies in the box and in the process I see ANOTHER thing in the box. So I look to see what this thing might be, it was just a small white box. I look at it and take off the paper and inside is an iTouch, I was confuzzled, he has an iTouch. So I grab the other box and its the rubber thingy that the iTouch lives in and its purple. Purple=MINE! I think i said Holy FUCK! to the dogs and texted Mister a wow...wtf?!?!? He says its just a present for v-day, just cuz & as a congrats for getting started on my business....and THAT'S why my hubby is the #1 ever!
Not to mention impeccable by accident timing for delivery of presents on really shitty days. Its really cool that he got me an iTouch, I really dug his and its just cool. It's even better he got the book, that's some pretty damn good paying attention skills there Mister. The very bestest part? He just did it because he knew I would love both & wanted to. He didn't do anything that warranted an expensive I'm sorry nor does he want anything that I'm aware of...he's just awesome.
So thats how my day went from dumb dumb stoopid dumb dumb to HAPPY GIRL DANCE!!!
And for the record I've been using my time with Mister closing to work on my business plan. I've made some pretty good headway so yes, I may be tired, but I'm tired from staying up too late working on that. I think I can live with that kind of tired...it's a productive for ME tired.
And totally off track ~ but I think Olympic Cross Country Skiing could sincerely be one of the most BORING things I've ever had the misfortune to watch. It's on as I'm finishing this, it is just boring.
I'm going to play with my iTouch some more and see what I can figure out before I hand it over to Mister to get it all set up with whatever it is I need on there ;-)
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