30 August 2009, Sunday

Just starting this thing today means you have no idea how I got to this point.....and since it's a 47 year and change calliope ride, how can I possibly hope to adequately bring you up to speed? Cutting to the chase, the cafes open tomorrow at the college. We've been on summer slumber mode since the last week in May...and bad habits have taken hold like mold on bleu. No one punches the time clock fully dressed and ready for work. No one has been wearing hats. The damn cell phones ring more than the bells of St. Mary's. The opening is not going to be easy for my staff....

There are two cafe's. One has a full kitchen, all production. The other is simply a grill and a quizno's (of all things, oh how horrid). Of the 15 staff members I have, 6 of them are new, 3 of them are fairly useless, one is only partly useless because he only works part time, and the rest put in an honest day's work.

For the record, I am the director of dining services. My previous appointments have been as executive chef on large college campuses or in corporate arenas. I know food, I can manage time better than Big Ben and I know what a kitchen can produce. I do not like the financial aspects of my job and with fervently that accounting fairies would come into my office in the wee hours of the night and do all my paperwork for me. I'd even leave delicious morsels as rewards if only they'd appear.

First staff members are in the house tomorrow at 6:30am. It's my plan to be there by 6. No, I will skip my daily torture event at the gym and go directly to work. I've spent 200 bucks on autumnal decorations (which my boss is going to skewer me like a kabob for). It's my plan to have both joints decorated before we open.

If there is a god, which I seriously doubt, actually, totally doubt, we'll get through all services tomorrow without over much rancor and with great aplomb. Patrons will sing our praises and the accounting fairies will pay me a visit.

I do not expect to sleep a wink tonight. If I do, I expect to have that recurring theme dream where it's christmas and I've neglected to wrap presents, or bake cookies or decorate the tree.... In short, it's the how screwed am I dream......