That ended up happening Wednesday. I had been a little worried that I was going to make a fool of myself. In my mind I'd be all, "YOU! Take some orders, stat!" and whoever it was would sneer at me, and say, "What are you talking about? I'm the Steamtable, you freak!" That didn't come up at all. They were all in their assigned positions, and generally keeping themselves busy in slow periods. Freaky.

It was actually kind of a boring day, which was a pleasant change of pace. Their "lunch rush" was a joke. The RM said it was a slow day, but the figure she quoted for a normal day was still a lot lower than the Madtown average.

There was only one kind of scary hour. The opening manager HAD to leave at 3. For reasons never fully explained, the closing manager didn't show up till 4. The hour started out really slow, and if it had been MY restaurant, I would have sent at least one person home early. I didn't know these people though, and I wasn't sure if they would be able to multitask the way I might need them to, so I kept all of them.

That ended up being a wise move. When the rush came, it turned out that none of them knew anything about the kitchen. So I ran the kitchen, and just sort of hoped they were all doing their assigned front-of-house stuff correctly.

I say "rush" but it wasn't, really. I was able to stay on top of Sandwich AND Steamtable AND Oven Coordinator with no real problems. I've done that in Madison, but once I get more than 4-5 orders all needed ASAP I get stressed. In J-ville, I never actually got that busy, so the illusion of my competence was never shattered.

At 4, when another kitchen person finally showed up, I was able to say, "OK, that's in the oven, that's in, that one's gone, and THAT'S in, so yeah. You're good." Apparently, adequate at all positions in Madison equals J-ville Supastar. They were dazzled by my stunning heights of adequacity. Booyah, my friends. Boo. Yah.

For dinner, I again felt like there were entirely too many associates, but I didn't know who could be cut, so I kept everyone.

The closing RM made a point of thanking me. She said she'd never had a Weds night go so well. I think I've mentioned, Weds is when all kinds of extra end-of-week craziness goes down.

Ideally, the closing manager gets left alone all night, so she can just do her thing. I was of course trained to leave the RM alone on Weds, or face HBL's terrible wrath. Apparently, this was never stressed in J-ville, and actually having a full night to work on paperwork uninterrupted was a novel experience for the J-ville RM. I'm adequadacious!
***
This entry is now exactly where it was about an hour ago. I was just about to make a joke about how I really shouldn't say anything about (something) but I defy you, stars, etc., and I hit the wrong button and the entire entry vanished in a puff of smoke. It turns out I really am fortune's fool. Who knew?

This time, I won't even go down that road. Maybe, when I have actual, concrete news, instead of just another possible rumor, I'll tell you about it.

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