Marla's Blog

Chefs are real people too

Monday:
Doctors appointment:  Gained 10 lbs since I "quit" smoking in January. 

Drove down south of town to visit my dad who is in a rehab facility after hip surgery.   He had hip surgery in January, stayed in rehab 6 weeks, went home for three, discovered that the hip surgery was not successful, had another surgery and is back in rehab.  Talk about a bad time.  Helped my mom get him to the surgeon's office for a follow up.

Monday evening the Feds came by.....Actually, my husband is a retired cop and some old friends (a cop and an FBI agent) came by the house upon his arrival back from business in California.  We drank a bottle of Jack Daniels, ate summer sausage and goat cheese from the fridge.  Topics ranged from whores to 9/11 and then back with plenty of politics and immigration reform thrown in.
(The FBI guy was in a "company" car and did not touch of drop)

Tuesday:   Dentist Appointment.  Came home and flaked out on the couch.  Went into work for a couple hours to place some orders.....had to order all those damn plates.  Ended up staying 8 1/2 hours because we got very busy.  Hosted, ran food, bussed tables, took drink orders, polished silver, answered the phone and paid some bills.  Arranged for one of my servers to stop by my house before work and pick up my daughter and drive her to Decatur to Dance on Thursday since I would be at an event and my husband would be back out of town.  For a fee of course.  Went home and found myself playing solitaire on the computer for an hour to cool off. 

Wednesday: Slept through hair appointment.  Sorry Kevin.  Went into work and started making 800 mushroom tarts for an Event at the Aquarium on Thursday.  Cooked the mushrooms.  Did some cleaning.  Went through paperwork and skipped out early.  Bought flowers for the event.  Finally got arrangements for someone to pick my daughter up from dance and take her to another friend's house to spend Thursday night.

Thursday:  Packed up my display items.  Went to work and finished the tarts.  Made lots of Ravioli for a wedding on Friday night.  Packed up with my manager and left to set up and work the event.  The event was a wine and food tasting hosted by Wine Enthusiast Magazine.   Lots of wine and food was set out for ticket holders.  It was quite an affair.  At precisely 4:29 pm my daughter calls and tells me she has lost her keys to the house. While my server who is there to pick her up walks around the house looking for an open window, my daughter is crying and saying she can't imagine where the spare key is either.  I instruct my server how to best break the window panel on the kitchen door so they can reach in and open the door and get the frigging ballet shoes and sleepover bag. 

7:30 pm  I go to my car in the parking deck, try to take a 15 min nap.  I am now bleary eyed.  I give up after a few minutes and go back to the event. 

10:00 pm I drop everything off at the restaurant including my manager and go home.  I get some thin plywood from the basement and cover the broken window in the door and set the alarm and go to bed.

Friday:  I try to sleep in, but am having a sofa delivered that I ordered several months ago.  I go pick up my daughter's stuff from the friend's house, go to the bank and post office and head into work.  We have closed the restaurant for the night for a private party.  The menu is easy, but the evening involves moving tables, setting seating charts, borrowing steak knives from my competition down the street because I didn't count them, bringing the extra plates I store in the basement or at home in for the service.  When 140 people eat their entree at the same time, you have to have 140 of the same size plate.  When you serve 140 people on a regular evening you can get by with 40 or so, plus you use different plates for different entrees.  Party goes very well.

Saturday:  8:30 am I drive my daughter to Decatur for an ballet audition for a more advanced class, catch a nice breakfast out and go to my rescheduled hair appointment across town. I have someone at the house replacing the window.   Afterward, I drive back across town to pick up my daughter, buy her breakfast and come home for a nap on my beautiful new couch.  I'm going in to work around 3:00 and will be working the bar because one server is on vacation and another is in rehab.  (Can I say that?)  I am beyond tired and frustrated with keeping my 13 year old daughter occupied every evening so we agree that she will stay at home, sleep, watch TV and be a slug.   As I am walking out the door, my daughter gets a phone call, or rather a TEXT message saying that two guy friends want to come over. Is that OK mom?  What?  I never thought I would be so exhausted and rushed and totally unprepared when that kind of situation finally arose.  In a split second I had to go through the pros and cons of her being with friends, one of whom I know and I think is delightful, the other I do not know, but have heard a lot about or her being alone.  I choose the guys.  I looked her in the eye and said NO SEX, NO HANKY PANKY!.  She looked like she wanted to kill me, told me to go.  I went.     I called every hour.  She always answered the phone quickly.

Sunday:  Left my daughter home again, this time a girlfriend and one of the "guys" come over.  Worked as the hostess, since my hostess is trying to finish up finals.  Brunch starts out very slow, ends up being quite busy.  Nice and easy.  Went home, cleaned the porch, started laundry.

Found the "lost" keys in the pocket of my daughter's jeans.

Today:  Back to the rehab center.  My dad will be going home on Saturday.

Even Chefs have Kids

Yesterday my lovely 12 year old was trying to squeeze into last year's jeans which she had worn the day before without my knowing. 

Me:"Why aren't you wearing the ones I just bought you?"

12 year old:"Because they are too baggy in the butt and ride too high, like grandma's jeans."

Me: "But I asked you in the store if they were too baggy  and you said no and you promised to wear them."

12 year old:  "Well, I know, but I can't wear them and I don't have anything else to wear.

Me:  "Wear a skirt."

12 year old:  " I have PE today and can't."

Me:  "Wear your sweats."

12 year old:  "I don't have anything that goes with them."

Me:  "You have more clothes than me.  Find something.  If you try to wear those old jeans, I will cut them up with scissors."

12 year old:  "You can't do that."  < crying, whining, crying>  "Your the worst mother ever!"

Me:  "I can't stand listening to this.  I'm getting in my car in my pajamas and driving around until you get on the bus."

12 year old:  <crying, whining, crying>

I get in my car.  Take my wallet and my cigarettes and drive around the block until I realize that this is crazy and my 12 year old has run me out of my own home.  I go back to the house.

12 year old:  <STILL crying, whining and crying>

I walk into her room, grab a pair of scissors and cut the old jeans down the front.  Go into my bedroom and close the door.

12 year old:  "I hate you.  I can sew those up you know!"

Me:  "Yeah right."

10 hours later my 12 year old calls me at work.

12 year old: "those new jeans are just awful.  They came over my belly button."

Me:  "You never tuck your shirt in anyway, who knows?"

12 year old:  "I do."  <crying, whining, crying>  "When are you coming home?"

Me:  "Never!"

Kid's go Back to school

Drove down to Santa Rosa Beach, FL for 1 and 1/2 days to pick my daughter up from visiting a friend.  Beach was lovely, drive not bad with a book on tape and a Sunday away from the restaurant, priceless.

That leaves one week for school supply shopping, clothes, registration for jazz and ballet classes, and a couple of days at the pool.

Back to school is a great thing for most parents and for me it's a real breather.  It's a little tough not seeing my daughter as much during the school year, but now she has plenty of homework and after school activities to keep her very busy.  She doesn't bother me with the words, "I'm bored".  When I want to flake out on Saturday morning, she does too.