i hate tuesdays

I hate it when people make me feel stupid. And I really hate it when I allow it to upset me. It isn't bad enough that my own teenage daughter treats me like I'm an idiot (she's sooooo much smarter than I am), but when co-workers and acquaintances start talking down to me and addressing me like I'm too dense to catch on, it really pisses me off. And it's hard to believe that I can still get my feelings hurt when someone makes an off-hand remark that cuts me down. My mom has been telling me for 46 years to grow thicker skin. Isn't it something that the people to whom I am devoted are the ones who can cut the deepest, and the quickest? I'm just embarrassed. And hurt. Must be Tuesday.

And So It Begins....

Well, today the snack bar officially opened at Hidden Hollow Swim Club. I now have responsibility over the pool snack bars at Hollow, and also at Knowlton Swim Club. I schedule 22 people to cover the shifts on both the snack bars all summer.

Day 1: I finished all of the shopping this morning by 9:30, picked up Drew, and made it to work around 10. Walked into the snack bar and discovered that the red juice from the slushie machine had leaked out of the container and was all over the table, the towels, the floor, and two paper towel rolls. Started to clean that up and decided we needed to get the cheese melting pot from the market plugged in because we opened in less than an hour. So Drew and I drove over to the market. We rounded up all of the items we needed from the snack bar near the market and drove it back to Hidden Hollow.

Except for register tape. Jess and Brittany were already in and had turned on the fryers, the grill, the pizza oven, etc. The pool was scheduled to open at 11:00, which it did. However, not grabbing the register tape was costly, because by the time we got situated and I got register tape, it was already 11:40. Not good, but not tragic. We got up and running...and then one of the breakers popped. Drew reset it, all was good; and then it popped again. I started moving plugs around, and didn't realize that even though I moved them, they were still on the same breaker, so it popped again. Freezer, heat lamp #2, the hot dogger, the cheese pot, the hot plate -- all out. I finally called Steve in to help. He showed up, we moved some plugs around (extension cord!) and all was fine...and then heat lamp #1 went out. We reset the CGI, it went out again. And again. After the third time, Drew went to find Steve. Turns out the heat lamp is bad. I asked for permission to throw it out, and Steve said yes! Hooray! Then I asked if I could buy a new one and he said yes again! (But he did ask that I clear it through Susie first.)

So now my electric is all going well, Drew, Brittany Mc., Jess, and I are running around handling all the customers, and we got SLAMMED. I kept thinking I had scheduled an extra person to come in at 12, but my fifth person was actually Kate, who I didn't realize until yesterday couldn't come in until 3:00. By the time she arrived at 3:15, we were on our 4th rush of the afternoon.

We ran out of change at one point, and Fred offered to go to the office to get it for me. But first he stopped in the pool office and grabbed some change from his drawer, plus he had change in his pocket, so he changed one of the twenties, and then he brought us change from the market office, so he needed a twenty from our drawer to cover what he took from his pocket...long and short, I have no idea how the drawer is going to come out!

We finally slowed down at about 3:45. Brittany clocked out and went home to grab a towel and her Kings of Leon CD. She came back a little while later. Jess asked if she could leave at 5:00, which wasn't a problem. Brittany mentioned that she didn't think we needed 4 people to close, so I told her she could clock out at 5:30; she wanted to go swimming. We never turned off the grills until 6:30. We were behind in cleaning up, so even though Drew, Kate, and I worked non-stop from one thing to the next, it was still 7:15 or so by the time we finished. We were the last ones out of the facility! When I looked at the receipts from the day, I realized why were all so tired! Kate left, and then Drew decided to take quick swim, so I figured, what the heck, why not. So he did.

About that time my cell phone rang. It was Michael, and when I told him that I was waiting for Drew because he was swimming, the response was, "well, if you want to swim you should do it there." Huh? It turns out that Jake and his friend Zack, who had stayed overnight Friday night, were swimming in our pool. And it collapsed. Jake ended up under a bush by the shed, and Zack hit the shed door. The water rushed toward the house and ended up flooding the laundry room, and then spread into the family room in the basement. By the time I got home, the kids and Michael had already emptied the entire laundry room out onto a tarp on the lawn to start drying.

So Day 1 is done; snack bar is ready to go in the morning, staffing is set (plus one, because Drew is coming in to help, also), there isn't a thing I can do about our pool, but I need to start going through all the stuff on the back lawn asap. Jake is sleeping overnight at Sonny's, Clara is at Yosmar's practicing for the Black & White concert, Michael is switching back and forth between watching the Pittsburgh Penguins finish off the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Division (gggrrrrr, hisssss, booooo) and Lake Placid, (one of the funniest "horror" movies ever made!), and I'm ready to fall asleep. But I'm pretty sure I'll stay awake long enough for a glass of amaretto and some snuggling with my puppy dog! Can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring!

Post Easter, Pre-Memorial Day

Wow, it's been forever since I posted anything here, and so much is going on right now. This is a wildly busy time of year in our household; Jake is finishing his first year of high school at Sun Valley, and awaiting promotion at the Marine Jr. ROTC program on May 29th; Clara is dancing with some friends in the Northley Talent Show on Wednesday, going to Washington, D.C. on Thursday, and performing in Giselle as well as a tap and a jazz dance in the recital on June 21st; Michael is doing lots of side work while he waits for Local 654 to dig up more electrical work, and in the meantime is working on an investment business; and I am working two jobs at the moment.

I am finishing up at the dance studio, where I am assisting with three classes, teaching one, and taking one, and I am trying to put together props and accessories for my dancers. I just finished up at my Old Union Nursery School dance class last Friday; six students performed for their families and Michael. (It was the first time Michael has ever seen me teach a dance class, so it was quite a treat for me to have him there, too.) Recital is on Father's Day weekend, which means I will be in rehearsals every Saturday (somehow) between now and then, and then in dress rehearsals and recitals from June 19th until the 21st. It makes for a very long couple of weeks.

In addition to that, I am managing both Hidden Hollow and Knowlton Pools' Snack Bars. That means I have been interviewing, hiring, scheduling and training employees; cleaning and prepping the snack bars for opening day; stocking and ordering food; making sure that we have electric (that works) and refrigeration all around, all while making sure that my boss remembers when all of the Orchard festival days are so that we can enlist additional staff to take care of the snack bar at Linvilla Orchards. Today I took a class to become certified in the Pennsylvania Safe-Serve program for food management. Hopefully, I passed the test. (I'm pretty sure I did...)

I spent last weekend acting as chaperone for a bunch of great teenagers at the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life event at Penncrest High School. It was a long, sleepless night, but we all had a lot of fun, and I would be willing to bet that I end up there again next year. :)

Clara still spends lots of time yelling at me for spending too much time on the computer, which is probably true; but I have been in touch with lots of long-lost friends via facebook, and it's kind of fun slacking off by playing on the internet. Of course, the house is a mess, and I haven't finished a book in weeks, but, well, I'm having fun. Wasting time. But having fun.

So the rest of this week I will be helping with Talent Show, finishing 25 pink rose barrettes (right after I find that damn glue gun), also putting together 20 scarlet ribbon wands, and getting my pool schedules together. And then it will be the weekend. And by Friday, I will have weird dreams and panic attacks. I'm so happy.