Three Months In...
Tonight marks the eve of our three-month PJP Buttonwood anniversary. And yeah, we don't know where time goes either. This time last year, a PJP return wasn't even an idea to consider and yet here we are, 90 days in and it is like PJP has always been a part of us. (I'm no expert, but I think when everything falls into place and you feel like you are exactly where you are supposed to be, that is called fate.) Here are some thoughts about three-months in...
- Owning a food service establishment has made eating out a wild distraction of the "I wonder what they are paying for rent here" and "I wonder where they get their boxes and bags and how much they pay for them" game. My kids now enter restaurants and wonder aloud if the restaurant is a fellow Sysco customer.
- Cooking and baking at home and only using half a stick of butter in a recipe gives me pause. My brain is now programmed to think in terms of pounds of butter. I feel like Paula Deen and I could be friends now.
- People do their laundry at 3 am. When we are bleary eyed and rolling into our parking spots, we will see people folding their whites and suddenly feel worse for late night/early morning laundry doing than late night/early morning pie baking.
- An astonishing amount of people prefer birthday pie to birthday cake. And to those people, we say that we love you. And while on the subject, we are working on a way to decorate and personalize pies for special occasions.
- 97.6% of the disagreements Jeanne and I have are based solely on the desire for one to say to the other..."you are working so hard and I know you are so tired." Now that we've figured out that little gem of information, there has been 91.6% less crying at PJP Buttonwood. Let's not talk about the other 6%.
- If I ever write a book, I'm going to call it "Dude, I Don't Even Know..." I'm already drafting the dedication page in my head.
- I've developed a fondness for a certain brand of spatula. I don't know if this makes me incredibly lame or ripe for an endorsement deal. If you own a spatula making company, we should talk.
- We are getting a little better at building a daily routine that works well for us both. I think by the time we perfect it, school will start and we will need to change the whole thing. Sounds legit.
- If PJP had a mascot, we would pick a rooster because it crows at the break of dawn. And now I have Bob Dylan lyrics stuck in my head. Don't think twice, it's all right.
- I have a callous on my left hand from whisking a lot. In Gone With The Wind, Suellen says to Scarlett..."Mother always said you could tell a lady by her hands." Margaret Mitchell was dead on with that observation. But Margaret Mitchell also didn't have access to expensive - and deep moisturizing - hand creams.
So those are the greatest hits from month three. Except for these very true statements...we have the best families and friends, who continue to support us through this journey and love us despite our calloused hands and weird sleep schedules. And also, every single customer we have had in PJP Buttonwood in the last 90 days has been exceptional. We've made friends with you, learned from you, and kept our sanity because you believed in us. So thank you.