Hello there, random people who read this blog and still check back even when I don’t post. And hi Dad, this is for you.
It’s been so long since I have written on here that I don’t know where to begin or what to say. I can hardly remember the day before yesterday, let alone the last 33 days (I last posted on Sept 9 I think). It’s like each day is so emotionally, mentally and physically intense that my brain only has storage capacity to remember the last day that passed. Anything before that gets wiped clean…except for funny, sad, or infuriating instances. Those stick out. Actually I always say that I love when Sunday’s go really well at work because on Monday, I think about how well the entire weekend went even if it was only Sunday because I honeslty can’t remember Saturday or Friday! haha So anyway, I’ll show you a collection of photos from the last 33 days (of food and bagels, but that essentially sums up my entire life) and share some other fun facts. Sound good? Then I’ll do my best to check in sooner rather than later because I do enjoy writing here and I enjoy even more having a diary of sorts to come back to, but with so little time and so little bandwidth for anything at all, I really have a to make an effort to get on here. Maybe I will bring back Wine Wednesdays where I pour a big glass of wine and write until the wine is gone…. that could work, especially since I have a lot of wine to get through. Two friends got me a bottle each for my birthday and then I became a Costco member and agreed to automatic yearly renewal so they gave me a bottle of wine (and I promply turned off the automatic renewal right after, sorry Costco, but thanks for the wine), and also Luis bought 15,000 bottles of wine for the shop and whatdoyouknow…nobody drinks wine in a bagel shop so we finally brought the wine home because it was taking up precious storage space sp now we have to do the work of getting rid of each bottle. All that to say, I’ll try to update on Wednesday.
Ok where to begin…let’s begin with now. I am drinking black espresso out of my Starbucks Philadelphia mug. I think buying stupid junk to fill your house is ridiculous, but I love this mug and I sort of like the idea of collecting their mugs from various places, but for now I just have my Philly one and it makes me happy on every Monday (or in the case of today, Tuesday) morning. I just ate entire mini challah that really wasn’t so mini, but I woke up with a headache and it’s probably because I barely ate yesterday because I was so tired after work that I just wanted to sleep. Oh and I barely ate anything but had a huge gin and tonic after work with friends. We went to a Spanish bar where they give nice alcohol pours and the girl said, “tell me when” and I told her…”quiero mucho” and it made me quite tipsy. But the challah got the job done and now I am very full of challah with cream cheese and butter and homemade apricot jam from my Dad. As I mentioned, today is Tuesday and normally we work on Tuesdays, but yesterday was a holiday in Spain and so we decided to open and do brunch (and it was great!!) and close today but doing this is also our way of closing on ALL Tuesdays. After this week, we will close on Mondays and Tuesdays and not open again for awhile. I am looking forward to having TWO days off per week…wow, the idea of that!!!
On the work front, things are going well!!
People keep asking how their going and my answer is “everything is going really well, but it’s strange” and also that “we don’t know if it’s going well becuase this is our first year open and we don’t know if this is how it should be or not”. Some days are dead quiet and I sit on my little stool in the kitchen and compulsively check Instagram and then call Luis and bother him at work and then think we should open Thursday-Sunday. Then there are days like last weekend (Friday and Saturday and Sunday) where we have a line out the door, the delivery buzzer going off over and over, and every single seat full (that we can have full under the restrictions) and I feel like my head will explode…but in a good way. We continue to get great reviews (online and in person) and on the weekend, the phone rings and rings with people trying to get a reservation (but because of stupid Corona, there usually isn’t much we can do). Things look great on Google, though.
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We sold out on Friday and Sunday (and Sunday we sold out way too early!). So, things are great. This continues to be the hardest thing I have ever, ever done. It’s so physically exhausting, but mentally and emotionally as well, but I also wouldn’t change it for anything. I told one of our employees that the way I feel after a day like Friday (when there was a line out the door, we needed to make some extra bagels, we needed to make the dough for 250 bagels for Saturday, we needed to get challahs out of the oven before 12, etc etc) is that I am swimming against the current in a rough ocean and as I swim, trying to just get to a place where I can rest for a second, there are people that need my help all along the way. So when I finally DO get to a place where I can rest, I am so, so tired. Fun, right?
On the non-work front…not much to report! Hahaha. Luis and I go out to eat 1-2 times per week, usually on Sunday or Monday. We like to get a drink after work on Sunday and that often turns into dinner. On Mondays, I try to do something fun or new, or else I end up working all day. I see friends occassionaly, but sometimes I feel like in this season of life, I see people more for them than for me. Or to be sure that I don’t lose the friend, but most of me really just wants to rest when I’m not working. I hope that closing on Tuesdays will give me a bit more bandwidth for getting out.
Time to get a move on doing some of the things I need to do for the week. I haven’t yet turned my phone off airplane so let’s see if we have any angry messages about us not being open today! Then the rest of the day will include:
- orders from all of our suppliers
- cleaning out my inbox (inbox zero)
- VOTING!
- making fliers for an instagram giveaway and then our pumpkin pie sales
- updating the website and our menus
- calling Delta because they cancelled by flight TO New York (but not the return, so it’s nice and complicated…thanks Delta) (This is the email they sent…I almost deleted it without opening it because it could NOT look more spammy. This is the entire message…no logo, no nothing:
The impact of the coronavirus outbreak has been felt around the globe by individuals, families, communities and companies. With the challenges brought on by these difficult and uncertain times, travel has been severely affected. Unfortunately, your itinerary ODW8S1 has been impacted and your flight 50 on 12/21/2020 has been canceled. To view your options, please visit the United app, united.com or call 1-888-825-7684.
We appreciate your patience during this time and look forward to welcoming you back on board in the future. On behalf of all of us at United, be well.
- not cleaning the house because we hired a cleaning lady!!!! wooooohoooo!!!
