Where's Waldo?

Have you ever seen  "Where's Waldo" books? You find Waldo in his little red and white striped hat in a huge jumble of a picture.

The owner of my restaurant won a Prosperity Award from the local chamber of commerce recently. They came to the restaurant , took a picture of him and had a life-size cardboard cut out made. They presented it to him at a chamber breakfast. He brought it to the restaurant and we servers have had a BALL with it. It first stood in the lobby area, then we moved it to the bar area . We thought about propping it up in the women's room but decided we all wanted to keep our jobs.

 Then we had his wife pose lovingly next to him. Trust me, she looks happier than she does by the real deal when we are at work. She is tough as nails on him....a trait I use with my own husband. After decades of being married to women like Barb and me, they have been beaten into submission realizing we are always right, even if we are really wrong, and if we ARE wrong it's most probably their fault for not doing something. 

Then we decided to move him to the back section of the store and have him peer out from behind the wall of a back dining room. I am the one that put him there but every time I walk by it catches my eye and I immediately think I have forgotten about a customer in the back and they are trying to catch my attention.

 I came into work to open this morning at 10:30 and the two Latino women who open the store at 8AM  were working in the kitchen with Len (who gets there at 9AM) putting together a lunch Barb was taking to a business for catering when she got there at 10:45. Len said as I walked in "They are both mad at you." It stopped me cold...what did I do? Both these women are insanely hard workers and although every one at work  is polite to them, I am one of their amigos. I talk to them, make coffee for them and they both "Love 'em some COTTON." I make them laugh and  and treat them as equals why on earth would they be mad at ME?  Heck, they work harder than I do...and not to brag but that's sayin' a lot!

Len said when he came in at 9 the women told him they came in the front door at 8 with the key he gives them and turned on the lights in the dining rooms. They were terrified when they spotted the man leaning out of the back dining room.

"OOPS"...MY Bad.
Both of them were off yesterday and didn't know I had moved 'Waldo' to another section of the restaurant. We all had a good laugh...what a great way to start a long ten hour shift! (and I mean that with all sincerity) Had I still be working in the corporate world I would have been sent straight to HR and maybe even fired. Working in the family owned business world, it was a good laugh and a great way to start the day... with a smile.

We have big plans for Waldo... Halloween costumes in October and Santa outfits in December!

Today Len was in the office working when the bartender told him there was a woman out front that wanted to talk with him. She  met him at  the chamber breakfast when he had been awarded his "Waldo" and sat at his table. I told him "It's hell being popular."

The man works so much  it makes ME look like a part time employee. He had ten things going at once and was just coming off a busy lunch,  with him on the line cooking in 120 degree heat. On our side of the expo line the temp is ninety and almost unbearable. On the cooks side it is an EASY 120 degrees. A pizza oven raging at 500 degrees , open flame char-grills too numerous to count and ovens set on varying degrees from 350 to 450.
It's like grilling out in the middle of Death Valley in a snow suit.

He leaned back out of the door and said "Just sit her by my cardboard cut out." He was kidding, but we all agreed and I walked to the front to greet the woman and asked if she needed to see Len? I led her to the back of the store and said "He's right back there" motioning to the back dining room where I had  Waldo peering out from the wall.  She threw up a hand and waved at him and after about three seconds  realized it was Waldo. She laughed harder than we did.

Dang it's nice to work in a place that doesn't have to conform to corporate rules. We have a good time...we work hard and sometimes we get our butts kicked.  It is a a family owned business  and what's even nicer is we are ALL family.

When you work as much as I do...it's awesome to be loved , appreciated AND get paid for it!

Til next time...COTTON

P.S.   you gotta click on the pics..they will be bigger!