Confluence of Events

Funny how things always seem to happen this way - kind of like how the ice machine inevitably will break down on the hottest, busiest Friday night of the summer. Although this time it is a bus person break down, or fall down, or fall apart, or what ever. It is a shortage, that is what it is. Here is how the whole thing went down, starting yesterday when we got the message on the answering machine from Terrell. We are already short in the kitchen - the two salad cooks are both on vacation, one which was planned weeks ago and the other that came up relatively short notice, but we got covered eventually. Terrell's call was to inform us that he had sprained an ankle, playing basketball, and would be out all week. Why these kids want to play basketball - or anything, for that matter (tongue in cheek here Todd!) - is beyond me. Anyway, Terrell is a busser and a dishwasher, so this is critical. Especially since Lacee is now history and Emily's last night is tomorrow - Terrell is 50% of the weekend bus help, now down 50%. The straw was the phone call from the new bus girl, hired three weeks ago to replace Lacee. All trained, she'd worked a busy Thursday last week on her own and seemed to be doing pretty well. Now she calls, at 4:30 PM - one hour before her scheduled shift, for a schedule where she is due to work pretty much every night for the next two weeks, with Lacee gone and soon Emily too - she calls to say she won't be coming in anymore. That she has to get ready to go to college next week and so won't have time to fulfill her obligation with us. This is not a 16 year old high school sophomore we're talking about here - this is a 19 year old high school graduate with a real day job. And wouldn't you think she would have known about this when I hired her three weeks ago? I tell her, fine, you don't have to give us two weeks notice, just come in for your scheduled shifts this week, starting at 6PM tonight, and we'll be cool with that...I'll figure out next week later, but with Terrell out I don't see how I can figure out this weekend without her. Okay, we hang up. Next phone call, you got it - the mother. Who is pissed. At me. Please explain to me how a responsible parent can justify a young woman quitting a job with basically an hour's notice? Why is this my fault? What kind of example does this set for the child? You may recall, this has happened before, parental "interference". I was very calm on the phone, explaining the situation in a very professional tone, while the mother hollered and hollered until finally she hung up...well, that was fun! Thank goodness I am not a teacher, I would never be able to deal with parents like this one.

So okay, no bus people for the weekend. Hmm, how is that going to play out? We all know the role of the bussers in our dining room - they are basically critical for our level of service.

Enter James, aka "Alaska", the most recently hired very part-time dishwasher who has managed to pick up a few extra shifts to supplement his every other Saturday night schedule. James, he of little to no dining room service. James, one of your nicer high school fellows. James, my savior. James agreed to come in last night to train, and lo and behold he got it! Pretty much by the time service was over, he was on it...he'll get the usual fine tuning, but at this point I couldn't be happier. Now all he needs is a partner...

As we entered service last night, I managed - for the first time - to light all of the bar votives with a single match. I took that as a sign. A good sign. Hopefully it means the ice machine won't go up Friday.

We've been pretty lucky this summer, that's the moral of this story.