I must be doing something right, they're printing me a set of business cards. I got out right on time today and could have gone directly to my HIV+ support meeting but I decided to skip it and spend a couple hours with Jet. I've been leaving him every morning at 9:30 and not getting home until 9 or later. I have time to walk him, stuff my face and watch about 1/2 hour of TV before bed. That's not a complaint. I'm having a great time working, and my fears about being able to put in a full day without getting tired appear to be unfounded. Between the fact that I'm not always hungover and I actually like what I'm doing and the people I work with, I have plenty of energy to get through the day. I actually had to be reminded today that we could go home, as I hadn't checked my watch in a while. It will be nice to pull a few night shifts when we finally open. At least I can walk the dog a couple times and spend some time in the park with him before I have to leave for work. I'm not planning on closing every single night however. That gets tedious after a while no matter who you are. And since the bulk of the problems happen at night, I'll take my share of less hectic day shifts on occasion thank you very much.
The last couple of days have been spent doing interviews, follow-up interviews and callbacks for interviews. I'm notoriously casual when it comes to interviewing. I usually skip over the standard questions and ask them about their family, if they have kids, where they were born etc. I spent the first 15 minutes of one interview getting information about weather and beaches in Brazil from one young lady. What can I say, I ask what pops into my head. You try interviewing 100+ people over three days. I have to get creative to keep from getting bored. You still get a good sense of what they're all about. I'm assuming a bartender can make a martini. If not, we'll find out soon enough.
One challenge that came up yesterday happened when my boss asked another manager and me to take some time this week to go to neighboring comparable establishments and suss out their drink prices. Pretty standard task when you are opening in an unfamiliar neighborhood. Problematic for a man in recovery however. I thought about calling someone to go with me. I could buy them drinks and get my info that way. But believe it or not, I'm not currently close enough with anyone not sober to call on in that situation. A free drink budget and no one to waste it on, can you imagine? Oh, the humanity! I mentioned to one of the other managers that I was having an issue with the assignment as I don't drink. I followed that up with, "Still, nobody says I have to finish it". He quickly corrected me "You mean drink it". Of course, I meant drink it not finish it, didn't I?
Yeah, that's it.
I won't be getting my first paycheck until next Friday. I have around $130 until then. Oy.
Showing posts with label jobs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jobs. Show all posts
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Monday, March 12, 2007
Day 1, Day 34, Daylight Come An' Me Wan' Go Home
Oooooooo Lawd!
Up at 7:30 so's I can leave for my first day on the job at 9:30. Yes, it takes me two hours to wake up and get ready to leave the house. In my defense, around 40 minutes of that involves walking and feeding the dog and a hot shower/shit/shave (for me, not the dog). A couple cups of coffee, some general pokiness and two hours fly by. I like to ease in to things rather than roughly plunge into the day's sphincter. I'm sensitive like that. Sometimes, I like to rim the day for about 20 minutes, but that's another story.
Anyhow, as expected, I've landed in a huge undertaking as far as jobs go. I'm working with a manager/consultant and another manager. Two more have been hired but they don't start for a week or two respectively. Unfortunately, by that time we need the entire staff hired and trained. Bussers, hosts, waiters, bartenders, runners, at least one Maitre d' and some barbacks if we can find any. Also, reservationists and seaters while we're at it. This while construction is ongoing, bars are being built, the waiter stations are purely theoretical, intricate computer wiring and soda systems need to be completed and beer lines have to be extended, hooked up and refrigerated. I need to come up with a wine list that will work for the time frame allotted as well as please the consultants. We need inventory sheets and a whole host of request forms, training manuals and legal documents. Bar supplies need to be ordered as well as all the liquor and food, linen napkins, aprons, bar mops and a million other things I haven't listed.
I spent today touring the facilities, offering up opinions for storage options and doing interviews and arranging call-backs for people already seen at least once. Talking on the phone is usually one of my least favorite things to do, but I must have called 20 people this afternoon. My irrational fear switch appears to be turned off. I hope it lasts.
The other new manager is gorgeous. And really nice. He's got very distracting fingers. But that might just be me. Anyway, we met with one of the (many) owner/investors, who was nice enough to take us through the storyboards for the entire concept. From bars to retail to entertainment to custom made state of the art recording booths to the real time on-line performance cams to the projection billboards over Broadway. To say that millions of dollars are being spent on this project would be a gross understatement. It could potentially be a destination complex for tourists worldwide. Even if it reaches flash-in-the pan status, I see it having a great 5-10 year shelf life in NYC and I also see huge potential for expansion to Vegas, Disney and anywhere else huge throngs of American Idol wannabe's gather. Assuming I don't dive headfirst into a giant martini glass, this could be an enormous source of income and a great coup in my career.
I put in a solid 8 hours and then headed downtown. I missed the first 15 mins. of a Gay-A meeting. I'm a little stunned I'm at 34 days now. I could have waited an hour and gone to a later one but I wanted to get home to Jet, and after a brief assessment of how I was feeling I was sure that there was no way I was going to spoil today by falling off the wagon. By the by yesterday found me skipping game day with the POZzies. I opted for getting caught up on my vomit crusted laundry. And I made it to the Alka-Palooza for the afternoon session. After catching a Gay-A meeting I popped over to Union Square Whole Foods for a Buffalo Chicken paninni that was div-ooon before returning for the big meeting in the school auditorium. I caught the last 15 minutes of one speaker. Shortly after the next speaker began, my head rolled forward as my seat-tray table returned to the "nap" position. I feel asleep. If you go to a meeting but sleep until the closing prayer it still counts, right? I mean, I was there ...
Well, I have to give the puke-meister his last walk now. I'm on day shifts at least until we get the joint open so by midnight I want to be in bed with a vampire DVD of some sort playing. That always soothes me to sleep.
Amazingly, they're sticking to the opening date of April 5th. I expect we'll be gluing down floor tiles right up until the doors open.
Up at 7:30 so's I can leave for my first day on the job at 9:30. Yes, it takes me two hours to wake up and get ready to leave the house. In my defense, around 40 minutes of that involves walking and feeding the dog and a hot shower/shit/shave (for me, not the dog). A couple cups of coffee, some general pokiness and two hours fly by. I like to ease in to things rather than roughly plunge into the day's sphincter. I'm sensitive like that. Sometimes, I like to rim the day for about 20 minutes, but that's another story.
Anyhow, as expected, I've landed in a huge undertaking as far as jobs go. I'm working with a manager/consultant and another manager. Two more have been hired but they don't start for a week or two respectively. Unfortunately, by that time we need the entire staff hired and trained. Bussers, hosts, waiters, bartenders, runners, at least one Maitre d' and some barbacks if we can find any. Also, reservationists and seaters while we're at it. This while construction is ongoing, bars are being built, the waiter stations are purely theoretical, intricate computer wiring and soda systems need to be completed and beer lines have to be extended, hooked up and refrigerated. I need to come up with a wine list that will work for the time frame allotted as well as please the consultants. We need inventory sheets and a whole host of request forms, training manuals and legal documents. Bar supplies need to be ordered as well as all the liquor and food, linen napkins, aprons, bar mops and a million other things I haven't listed.
I spent today touring the facilities, offering up opinions for storage options and doing interviews and arranging call-backs for people already seen at least once. Talking on the phone is usually one of my least favorite things to do, but I must have called 20 people this afternoon. My irrational fear switch appears to be turned off. I hope it lasts.
The other new manager is gorgeous. And really nice. He's got very distracting fingers. But that might just be me. Anyway, we met with one of the (many) owner/investors, who was nice enough to take us through the storyboards for the entire concept. From bars to retail to entertainment to custom made state of the art recording booths to the real time on-line performance cams to the projection billboards over Broadway. To say that millions of dollars are being spent on this project would be a gross understatement. It could potentially be a destination complex for tourists worldwide. Even if it reaches flash-in-the pan status, I see it having a great 5-10 year shelf life in NYC and I also see huge potential for expansion to Vegas, Disney and anywhere else huge throngs of American Idol wannabe's gather. Assuming I don't dive headfirst into a giant martini glass, this could be an enormous source of income and a great coup in my career.
I put in a solid 8 hours and then headed downtown. I missed the first 15 mins. of a Gay-A meeting. I'm a little stunned I'm at 34 days now. I could have waited an hour and gone to a later one but I wanted to get home to Jet, and after a brief assessment of how I was feeling I was sure that there was no way I was going to spoil today by falling off the wagon. By the by yesterday found me skipping game day with the POZzies. I opted for getting caught up on my vomit crusted laundry. And I made it to the Alka-Palooza for the afternoon session. After catching a Gay-A meeting I popped over to Union Square Whole Foods for a Buffalo Chicken paninni that was div-ooon before returning for the big meeting in the school auditorium. I caught the last 15 minutes of one speaker. Shortly after the next speaker began, my head rolled forward as my seat-tray table returned to the "nap" position. I feel asleep. If you go to a meeting but sleep until the closing prayer it still counts, right? I mean, I was there ...
Well, I have to give the puke-meister his last walk now. I'm on day shifts at least until we get the joint open so by midnight I want to be in bed with a vampire DVD of some sort playing. That always soothes me to sleep.
Amazingly, they're sticking to the opening date of April 5th. I expect we'll be gluing down floor tiles right up until the doors open.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Breaking ...
It's official. I'm about to call back my new employer and accept their job offer. I'll be returning to work sometime Monday. I'm pretty excited and a little anxious. One day at a time ... One day at a time ...
As a public service ...
If you currently have a Palm gadget that uses either the Palm OS or Windows Mobile, the fine folks at Palm have provided a software update to account for the change in daylight savings time that threatens to cause mobile calenders and schedulers to pitch fits, or at least throw you off by an hour every day. If you didn't get the e-mail, you can find and download it here.
As a public service ...
If you currently have a Palm gadget that uses either the Palm OS or Windows Mobile, the fine folks at Palm have provided a software update to account for the change in daylight savings time that threatens to cause mobile calenders and schedulers to pitch fits, or at least throw you off by an hour every day. If you didn't get the e-mail, you can find and download it here.
Friday, March 09, 2007
Paranoia, The Destroyer
I didn't hear from my new employer today. Supposedly, they were going to check my references and make me an offer. I'm sure my references will check out, assuming they can track down a few alcoholic bar managers. Not always an easy task. I know I'm being paranoid, but I've had so much shit dumped on me the last two years that I'm understandably a little gun shy. I'll feel better when I hear from them.
I'm officially well and truly over winter. Except for a brief respite, it feels like it's been cold for weeks and weeks. I usually walk all over, but I've taken to the subways and buses in order to avoid the frigid winds. Jet gets a no-nonsense walk around the block, and if he doesn't get all his business (read: poop) done by then it can wait 'till next time.
I found a recipe for veal stew that sounded pretty good. I modified it with some pork cubes, and then got really creative. I gave it a quick taste just now but I'll wait 'till tomorrow and season it up some more. If it's as good as I think it is I'll publish the recipe.
Yesterday, after braving the cold and heading across town for a Gay-A meeting, I arrived a few minutes early. A homeless man had come in, obviously to get warm, not to get sober. He was standing by the refreshment table with a cup of hot coffee and several shopping bags. His nose was dripping snot and he was dunking and sloshing and eating cookie after cookie, all the while talking incoherently in a mix of English and Spanish. I took a seat and took off my coat, heading for the coffee pot to get a warm cup. It was completely empty. Dejected and freezing I returned to my seat as the homeless man continued eating and babbling. I pictured myself running him right through his bloated belly with a shiny silver samurai sword and calmly sitting back down. I would say I'm not a nice person but after all, I didn't actually kill the poor man for real.
I'm officially well and truly over winter. Except for a brief respite, it feels like it's been cold for weeks and weeks. I usually walk all over, but I've taken to the subways and buses in order to avoid the frigid winds. Jet gets a no-nonsense walk around the block, and if he doesn't get all his business (read: poop) done by then it can wait 'till next time.
I found a recipe for veal stew that sounded pretty good. I modified it with some pork cubes, and then got really creative. I gave it a quick taste just now but I'll wait 'till tomorrow and season it up some more. If it's as good as I think it is I'll publish the recipe.
Yesterday, after braving the cold and heading across town for a Gay-A meeting, I arrived a few minutes early. A homeless man had come in, obviously to get warm, not to get sober. He was standing by the refreshment table with a cup of hot coffee and several shopping bags. His nose was dripping snot and he was dunking and sloshing and eating cookie after cookie, all the while talking incoherently in a mix of English and Spanish. I took a seat and took off my coat, heading for the coffee pot to get a warm cup. It was completely empty. Dejected and freezing I returned to my seat as the homeless man continued eating and babbling. I pictured myself running him right through his bloated belly with a shiny silver samurai sword and calmly sitting back down. I would say I'm not a nice person but after all, I didn't actually kill the poor man for real.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
We Interrupt This Decline Into Poverty ...
Unless something goes horribly awry, some idiot has gone and given me a job again.
I'm back in nightclub management, and I'm opening a brand new operation right in the center of Broadway. It's a huge undertaking, and I need to hit the ground running as the current plan is to have it up and running by the first week of April. Construction is well underway, but this ought to test the bonds of my new-found sobriety all right. I am, however gratefully aware that I probably wouldn't have been able to land the job if I hadn't stopped drinking. Here we go ...
I'm back in nightclub management, and I'm opening a brand new operation right in the center of Broadway. It's a huge undertaking, and I need to hit the ground running as the current plan is to have it up and running by the first week of April. Construction is well underway, but this ought to test the bonds of my new-found sobriety all right. I am, however gratefully aware that I probably wouldn't have been able to land the job if I hadn't stopped drinking. Here we go ...
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Yawn
So I've been spending a lot of time at the gym. While I do pay a monthly membership, it's been helpful because it doesn't cost me anything on a daily basis to go and spend an hour or two working out. With money being tight, it's a part of the day where I'm not spending and it helps distract me from things between Gay-A meetings and my worries about finding a job. Besides, I've been working out on a pretty regular basis for so many years, I just feel good when I work up a good sweat. I get a chance to read, zone out, listen to music. My gym time is therapeutic. I don't see it as a chore or punishment. Today I'm 15 days sober. I've been at the gym for 14 of those days. I don't always lift weights. Sometimes I do cardio and an ab routine and skip weights entirely. And I'm not really looking to get bigger. At my age, I have no aspirations to add bodybuilder to my profile. Mostly I'm hoping to not get fat and to keep my ass from hitting the back of my thighs a while longer.
My birthday was decidedly low-key. My niece called to wish me a happy day. It wasn't a particularly big struggle to not drink that day. I've long since past feeling like I had to "celebrate" my birthday by going out and getting fucked up. Same goes for New Years. I eventually began to hate marking those "reflective" holidays by waking up feeling like shit with a vicious hangover. I just feel like you're setting the stage for more of the same. So I went to a meeting, and had a nice phone call with one of the guys I've met through Gay-A. I did some window shopping, easy because I really don't need anything right now. Then I hit the Virgin Megastore in Union Square. They are having one of their $10 sales. Hundreds of CD's and DVD's all for a sawbuck. I walked around and picked up an armload of stuff, anything that caught my eye. I probably had $100 worth of music/movies. Then I went through each one and decided what I absolutely wanted. I managed to get out spending only $30. I got a Black Eyed Peas CD, and a Motown #1's compilation that I've been playing all day. I also picked up a copy of the movie Camp. I've never seen it and I've heard it's fun.
I've been a little discouraged lately because I haven't got any responses to resumés I've been sending. That's unusual, as my bar/restaurant resumé is pretty impressive. I sent myself a copy of the cover letter and resumé that I've been copy/pasting. It turns out, the Word copy I've been sending displays completely different than my layout. I look like an amateur. Even worse, I put in my cover letter that I'm fairly proficient in Word. No wonder nobody responded. I have an interview today for a job bartending on a day cruise around Manhattan. Believe it or not, I've decided to go back to bartending for a while. Drinking while working was never really an issue with me. In fact, I prefer to stay sober. It was always after work that was the issue. When everybody hangs out and rehashes all the horror stories of the day. I won't be able to do that anymore. But bartending will provide me with an immediate cash flow, and it's a great way to get out of debt quickly. And I'm sick of worrying about how I'm going to pay my bills. With a strong objective in mind, I'm pretty confident I can get behind a bar and not have issues.
Sorry this post wasn't particularly entertaining. In case you can't tell, I'm trying to use this space to help me sort some things out, and remind myself what's really at stake. I will try to mix things up this week and find some humor or dirty gay sex to tell you about. Thanks for listening.
My birthday was decidedly low-key. My niece called to wish me a happy day. It wasn't a particularly big struggle to not drink that day. I've long since past feeling like I had to "celebrate" my birthday by going out and getting fucked up. Same goes for New Years. I eventually began to hate marking those "reflective" holidays by waking up feeling like shit with a vicious hangover. I just feel like you're setting the stage for more of the same. So I went to a meeting, and had a nice phone call with one of the guys I've met through Gay-A. I did some window shopping, easy because I really don't need anything right now. Then I hit the Virgin Megastore in Union Square. They are having one of their $10 sales. Hundreds of CD's and DVD's all for a sawbuck. I walked around and picked up an armload of stuff, anything that caught my eye. I probably had $100 worth of music/movies. Then I went through each one and decided what I absolutely wanted. I managed to get out spending only $30. I got a Black Eyed Peas CD, and a Motown #1's compilation that I've been playing all day. I also picked up a copy of the movie Camp. I've never seen it and I've heard it's fun.
I've been a little discouraged lately because I haven't got any responses to resumés I've been sending. That's unusual, as my bar/restaurant resumé is pretty impressive. I sent myself a copy of the cover letter and resumé that I've been copy/pasting. It turns out, the Word copy I've been sending displays completely different than my layout. I look like an amateur. Even worse, I put in my cover letter that I'm fairly proficient in Word. No wonder nobody responded. I have an interview today for a job bartending on a day cruise around Manhattan. Believe it or not, I've decided to go back to bartending for a while. Drinking while working was never really an issue with me. In fact, I prefer to stay sober. It was always after work that was the issue. When everybody hangs out and rehashes all the horror stories of the day. I won't be able to do that anymore. But bartending will provide me with an immediate cash flow, and it's a great way to get out of debt quickly. And I'm sick of worrying about how I'm going to pay my bills. With a strong objective in mind, I'm pretty confident I can get behind a bar and not have issues.
Sorry this post wasn't particularly entertaining. In case you can't tell, I'm trying to use this space to help me sort some things out, and remind myself what's really at stake. I will try to mix things up this week and find some humor or dirty gay sex to tell you about. Thanks for listening.
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