Deep Dive

In just one week from tonight, Thanksgiving 2k18 at PJP will officially be over. Or, if we are still at PJP Buttonwood at 9 pm next Wednesday night, just head on over and run over me in the parking lot as an act of mercy.

So in case I haven’t mentioned once or 580 times, the Thanksgiving pre-order system closes at 6 pm tomorrow night. And once that happens, we will do a final review of all of the counts and start to put together a grand plan for next week. Also, I will not be allowed to answer the phone at PJP even once on Friday or Saturday because I tend to cave like a cheap suit if someone starts crying because they missed the deadline. (That goes for Jeanne as well because she’s maybe even worse at saying no to that sort of thing than I am.) Basically, I have a few members of Team PJP who will handle the phones on those two days because they have iron backbones when it comes to heartbreaking tales about pies and deadlines.

And though I haven’t mentioned it, we will follow our general Thanksgiving protocol of closing on Thanksgiving and then both the Friday and Saturday immediately after. In previous years, this decision would flood me with angst, but I’ve sort of made peace with it by now because you know what I don’t want to do the day after Thanksgiving? Make pies. Or talk about pies. Also, the downside of entrepreneurship will be in full force over the next six days as we work exceptionally long hours, worry incessantly about making it all come together seamlessly, and overanalyze everything. So we are just coming back hard with a major perk of entrepreneurship - setting our own schedule. I’ll be more than amped to have a few days at home and very happy for those members of Team PJP traveling to see their families for a long weekend. And in true testament that we really like each other, a few Team PJP members and their families are coming to my house on Thanksgiving for dinner (only once they agreed that we have to wear comfy clothes and drink a lot of wine).

And then we will be back to normal the following Tuesday, like this deep dive into crazy never happened. Except we will be a little smarter, as this Thanksgiving proves to be our biggest yet. We will get more than 1,800 pies out the door next week and it makes me think, if we have double the space next year in a new location…could we do 3,600 pies? (90% of Team PJP just swore under their breath.)

But if I’ve learned anything about this process, it’s that working with a focus on a single day helps keep your sanity in check. So tomorrow, I’m only letting us think about tomorrow. Except Jeanne, who is thinking about 4,298 things at any given time. In fact, I bet you anything in this world that she’s already thinking about the epic clean that is going to go down that afternoon inside PJP. If left just to me, I’d just leave it all to the next Monday. And that’s precisely why together, we make the best person.