Dear Readers,
I’m sorry I haven’t blogged much
since October. I’ve been working 16 plus hours for my brother at his
restaurant. My commute there is an hour there and than an hour back home after
a long day.
Things have been a little crazy
over the past few weeks due to the fact that my brother broke his one leg in 18
pieces (between two bones in the calf of his leg) and ruptured a muscle in the
other leg in a skiing accident 16 days ago. He hasn’t been able to come to the
restaurant due to having surgery in both legs. He’s doing better than what he
has been doing, thankfully, and that it was only his leg not his neck.
The entire staff has been
stepping up in their work. They come in earlier and stay later in order to
complete all their work, they work harder and work better. A few times I had to
physically separate some of the male staff because of the long days, stress of
NOT having my brother here and some lack of sleep, their tempers went flying. A
few times I was on top of it while I was in the office because the office is
connected to the kitchen and I can hear everything that happens in the kitchen.
The other times, I heard yelling that wasn’t normal so I had to go running from
the dining room into the kitchen to see a few guys in each other’s faces ready
to start a fist fight because of their exhaustion.
Twice,
I had to haul a few guys outside behind the building because they wouldn’t
listen to anyone else but me. I screamed at them that fighting does NOT help my
brother, does NOT help me NOR does it help the restaurant succeed. I told them
that if they want to keep their jobs while I’m in charge, they need to sit
down, shut up and work; they can bring their anger out later when they’re at
the bar drinking and fight there. I don’t have the time for childish behavior
like that because I’m constantly between the hospital where my brother was, the
restaurant, running errands and sleeping when I could.
My
brother finally came to work on Tuesday but it was only for a few hours.
Everyone who was there saw, for a rare second, the love and respect that my
brother and I have for each other. We get along very well but when we work
together for more than 4 hours, it can get a little hairy because we both have
short tempers, get annoyed easily and blow up on each other at least twice a
day; he threatens to fire me and I threaten to walk out with ¾ of the staff.
He came
in for a full day for Christmas Eve and I was super worried because of how he’d
hold up. My sister in law and I both wanted him to come in for the afternoon
into the evening because we knew he would get easily frustrated with the fact
that he’s stuck in a wheelchair. He pulled through but left for a few hours so he
could go home, relax, take a nap and come back refreshed for the Feast of the
Seven Fishes that we were offering; we’re Italian and the restaurant is an
Italian restaurant.
At
the end of the night, I gave one of the guys a very expensive bottle of wine
for Christmas that he could share with his wife. That killed me a little bit
inside because I care for him very deeply but I’m NOT the type to interfere
with a happily married man who adores and loves his wife. He thanked me and
gave me a hug, wishing me a Merry Christmas.
Yesterday
was a good break from working such long days and I was able to sleep in until 9
am. From the time I woke up to the time I went to bed at 1 am, I was nonstop
since my parents and I had family over to celebrate Christmas. We enjoyed
ourselves and had a good time.
Today,
I’ve been at the restaurant since 8 am and I’m here until 11:30 pm. I’m tired
of these long days but at the same time, I’m grateful that my brother is
getting a break and getting some sleep that he desperately needed. The last
time he had a break was when he and my sister in law went on their honeymoon
for two weeks out of the country.
Just
hope that my brother recovers quickly so he can return full time.
