Updates...

Not much new is going on, but I've been neglecting my blog for a while and I'm in a mood to type.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. Very low-key, exactly like I like it. Cassie & Toby are here for the weekend. Well, Toby is here half the time and at his parents' house half the time. I don't mind because the more he's here, the more Cassie is here, as well :) It's been a really nice weekend with them. I didn't realize how much I've really missed just hanging out with Cassie. For those wondering, she is doing well. Happy. She could be working more, but eh, not my business, right? She's talking about going to college next fall, so we'll see if that pans out.

Work is good. I'm having a hard time balancing how friendly to be with people because I end up getting shit on. Well, not shit on, really, but, well, let me give an example. One of my kitchen guys, Enrique, is a good guy. He's a REALLY hard worker and he's very reliable. He helps me out to a tremendous degree, being that he's pretty much bi-lingual. His English needs some help, but it's good enough. If a kitchen worker can't come in, they will call Enrique and, 99% of the time, he will find a replacement without even involving me or the other managers. He will just come into work and say "so-and-so can't work tonight, so-and-so is going to work in his place." It's great.

In return for that, I try my very best to give him the schedule that he wants and when he asks for a raise, I push for it (he's gotten 2 in the last year, both with my help). So, this lends itself to a work-friendship, if you'd call it that. I ask him questions about Spanish words, he asks me about English words. We both practce with each other. I ask him to check on workers and make sure they are happy - asking if they have concerns that I can help with, etc.

So, when he gets pissed off, it affects me a lot. Let's use last Friday for an example. Fridays have not been very busy lately. So, we've had 2 guys in the dish pit. On busy nights, we need 3 for sure. Well, we had one REALLY busy Friday hit us with only two in the dish. Yeah, that sucked, but we didn't know it would happen.

I've been asking my boss every few weeks or so if I can start scheduling a 3rd because it's taking them all forever to get out of there on Friday nights (my closing shift, of course) and we're only going to start getting busier soon. He keeps saying no, not yet.

Well, last Friday, Enrique pulls me aside and says "You need to schedule a 3rd person in dish. If you don't, we are not going to stay and help out when we are done, it's too much work." I was FLOORED. And completely pissed off. Seriously, he's going to threaten me when I've gotten him the schedule he wants, fought to get him raises, etc? Really?

I did not take kindly to that. I threw on a t-shirt and start doing dishes myself. He was shocked. He came over to me and said "I was only joking about not helping, we will help. But you need another person on the schedule." I tried to explain to him about 5 times that I AGREED with him, but it was out of my hands. He wasn't getting it and I couldn't explain it. I ended up getting really frustrated, raising my voice, and throwing a plate in the dish pit (not really hard or anything, but it got my point across).

Needless to say, the rest of the night was tense. I did a) apologize and b) talk to my boss about scheduling a 3rd person now, rather than later. Turns out that with the language barrier that I forget is there, he was only trying to make a point - he wasn't meaning to have it come across as threatening.

So, my dilema is this - I think I need to stop being so friendly with my staff. I hate that I have to do that, but I feel like if I had been more "boss-like" with Enrique before, that he wouldn't have spoken to me like that. He certainly wouldn't have threatened John or Dana with not staying.

I want my employees to know that I'm on their side, but I'm still their boss. It's such a fine line. It comes from serving before - I know their frustrations, I know what it's like to feel like you have no voice. I don't want my staff to feel that way, but on the other hand, they need to understand that they won't always get what they want and they need to listen to me.

Whew, that was a book!!!

Our anniversary is on Friday. 11 years married, 13 together. Wow. I have to work that night, but we will go out to celebrate the next night. Going to our favorite French restaurant - we go there every year. I'm looking forward to it!!

Ok, off to take the boys to swimming lessons!!

The iPhone

Greatest.

Invention.

EVAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This, That, and the Other

Been a couple weeks. Life's been busy, as per usual.

Work is kicking my ass right now. The new schedule IS easier, but we've got this new inventory software that's required to be used this month. Things keep happening that bring me back into the restaurant on my days off. The typical stuff. We are starting to get busier, thank goodness, so it's only going to get worse - but that's in a good way.

We have added to our family. As an early anniversary present, Dave let me pick out a kitten from the animal shelter. Well, we couldn't all decide on one kitten, so we were going to get two. Then I came across an older cat and fell totally in love with her.

So, we ended up with one tiny kitten (Chloe) and one grown up cat (Gabby). Now we have a house of 4 girl cats :) It's a lot of fun around here right now. Chloe is absolutely nuts and adorable. She's asleep in my lap while I'm typing this. I feel so great about rescuing Gabby. People don't want older cats usually and she is just such a sweetheart. She's obviously very happy to be in a home now.

The other cats are having a hard time adjusting, but they will, in time.

I'm signing up for Spanish classes in the new year. I'm frustrated at not being able to communicate as well as I want to at work with my Spanish-speaking staff. Plus, I need to know when this one guy is talking about my ass, so I can tell him to shut up in his native tongue hahahaha

Cassie's coming home for Thanksgiving. She's bringing her kitten with her- this is going to be interesting!!!!

I have no words...

Tonight was amazing.

Tears of joy.

I am speechless.

Halloween Coldplay

Now that I finally have some down time, I can write about the concert. Do I need to say it was amazing? Do I need to say it was awesome? Do I need to say I have nothing to look forward to in life anymore now that it's over? Ok, that was a little overdramatic... I was a little worried that the show would be the same as the last one. It wouldn't have mattered TOO much, because they are so awesome, but I was thinking it would be nice if they switched it up a bit. They sure did. The first three songs were the same as last time, in the same order, but that was cool. Here are some shots from Clocks - this first one is my wallpaper on my laptop now, I think it's just awesome:



The globes that I was trying to get a good shot of last time and didn't. They were made to look like pumpkins:



At one point, they had them looking like Jack Skelington - blurry, but you can get the point - SO cool:



Pic of Chris on the big screen:



There were several differences in this show. First off, they played Speed of Sound, which they didn't play last time. They also played Talk and the entire song of The Hardest Part. It was really cool to hear 4 songs off of the X&Y album instead of 2. Here is a video of Fix You (remembering the sound is not great because of how loud it is):



There was no Fox News projection this time - just a techno song with samples from Viva la Vida thrown in. It was pretty cool. Speaking of Viva la Vida - it was extra amazing this time. I love that they started it differently. I got the whole song on video, not just the first half :)



They did not play the beginning of Yes for some reason, but rather the second half. They did, however, play the one song off the new album that they didn't play last time - Cemeteries of London. Awesome. Every song from Viva la Vida was played. They did TWO encores this time, Politik and Death and All His Friends. The butterflies were not butterflies - they were bats and pumpkins:



They were, of course, dayglow:



Now, the most important part. We had floor seats - as you can see from the videos, not GREAT seats, but pretty decent. They were the best seats in the house, if you ask Nadine or me. Just like last concert, they ran into the back of the venue to play The Scientist. Well, on their way to the back, they walked RIGHT NEXT TO US. I knew this would happen the second we got to our seats and I was so excited the entire time. I got to high-five Jonny, the guitarist, and I ended up patting Chris on the back. Yup, I touched Chris Martin. Sigh. If only I could have gotten my hands on Guy, it would be have been perfect. I got video, but the security guard was being a jackass and wouldn't let me even put my elbows in the aisle. So, you can't see anyone's faces, but you can see exactly how close we were. Jonny and Will (the drummer) ran by first, then Chris and Guy walked past (Chris is in the white shirt). Just incredible:



Oh, and let's not forget that Chris is political. Loved this little speech:



Funny thing was - with the second encore...I thought "what didn't they play? What are they going to play now?" Duh. Yellow. Such a great way to end the show. Perfection. Can't wait for the next tour. I honestly want to go see this show again in another city...maybe for my anniversary or Xmas present. Hmm...