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Tuesday, June 15, 2010

One Hell Of A Week But On Top Of The World

This week has been draining to say the least. Our town holds a 4 day Jazz Festival every year and the cafe I owned with the Ex cops a flogging every year. The first year we had only been in business for two months and had no idea what we were in for, which led to both of us being there until 3am prepping for the next day each night. It was a success but nearly killed us. 
Last year found us just as busy but a lot more prepared. To complicate matters our relationship was over, we were still living together and the pins placed in our son's arm had worked their way to the surface and left lovely gaping holes which required me to run him out to Slightly Bigger Town ER each night to be checked and dressed as well as keep up with the prep for the weekend. So it is no wonder that we both involuntarily cringe at the words 'Jazz Festival'.  
This year as the time approached we both started wondering if we were mad. I was going to go back for the 4 days and reclaim my kitchen for the Festival, do 14 hour days with the Ex in a pressure cooker situation and hopefully nobody was going to get hurt in the process. We knew it was crazy and had all the makings of a disaster, but our staff and customers also saw trouble coming. One regular customer was placing bets on when he would see me storming off down the road in tears, and I'm not sure I blame him for expecting it. In the end the Ex and I decided that the weekend would be declared a success if we got through it without having to call an ambulance.
Well, we did it! No snappy moments, no arguing and a lot of really good teamwork. I am very proud of us both. It turned out to be by far the least stressful year so far and the only downside was that we missed out on setting a new sales record by $16 on the Saturday and $14 on the Sunday. And our amazing son stayed at the cafe all weekend without a complaint and amused himself so well that there were several times I looked up to find him in the sea of people with a certain amount of panic because I had not heard him for hours and suddenly had a Mummy Panic Moment. He has been substantially rewarded for being the perfect Hospitality Kid and been told how proud of him we are so much that he is now starting to growl at the compliments. Also very proud of our wonderful staff who made it so much easier for us this year.
So that is my final stint at the Cafe over and done, and I must say it is like a chapter of my life has been finalized. I did the right thing going back to help and I am so glad it all ended on a high.

1 comment:

  1. I'm so happy that things worked out so well. Keep on moving forward!

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