Episodic.

A relative newcomer to the PJP Inner Circle spent some time with us at PJP Buttonwood on Saturday.  After an hour or so of observation, he turned to me and mentioned that the vibe behind the front counter was very "episodic".  I couldn't help but laugh because I think he was trying to find a nicer way to describe us than "schizophrenic"...(and it totally worked because "episodic" sounds downright charming in a Sally Albright sort of way).

It took me a day or so to ponder it, but I think the relative newcomer to the PJP Inner Circle could be spot on in his analysis of Jeanne and I.  And perhaps a year ago, I would have shrugged off his two cents worth, but now a full year into PJP v. 2.0, I can't help but wonder how much we hinder our PJP v. 2.0 growth by our naturally episodic nature.

Let's consider for a moment our pie box situation.  We are almost always out of baby pie boxes. I can order 600 boxes from MrTakeOutBag.com every ten days or so and still risk running short in the store.  A person with an episodic nature (read:  me) would order 600 boxes, be really happy for about six days, realize only 20 boxes are left, log into MrTakeOutBag.com and order another 600, paying more per box to ship them overnight than the actual cost of the boxes.  A person without an episodic nature would naturally order 5,000 (or more boxes) and store them in a rental unit or their home and bring them in as needed.  (And let's be honest - a prepared person would order 25,000 pre-printed custom boxes.)

Or let's consider milk.  We buy our milk from HyVee because it tends to be a bit cheaper per gallon than what our food broker could deliver to us.  A few times a week, we buy four or five gallons of whole milk at HyVee and haul them back to PJP Buttonwood.  We inevitably run out of milk by the end of the week and someone (read:  Jeanne or I) have to stop whatever we are doing to drive to Hy-Vee, pick up a gallon or two of milk, wait in line, check out, and drive back.  All in effort to save .40 cents a gallon or so.  Something tells me that Martha Stewart doesn't do it like that (well, forget her because she probably just milks her own cows on her property, but you know what I mean.)  .40 cents a gallon isn't worth our time or the interruption in our baking schedule to stop and go to HyVee.

And the truth behind our episodic approach, I would suspicion, is all in the way we look at what we are doing at PJP Buttonwood.  We believe in World Pie Domination...and even so, sometimes we treat PJP like a lemonade stand on a neighborhood street corner.  (And even so, I've never stopped by a lemonade stand that has run out of cups.)  And frankly, PJP deserves more.  I think figuring that out is half the battle.  Getting out of our own way may be the other half.

So the question becomes then, how do we take our general nature - reactionary, dramatic, intense, and given toward procrastination - and funnel that to the best case scenario for #WPD?

And if this is where you think I'm rounding the corner with all the answers...I'm not.  I'm just throwing it out there to the great Internet void because it is worth thinking about...