CrazyJohn on the 13 hour day... and running out of half the flavors of ice cream. If we were Baskin Robbins, we would have only have fifteen and a half flavors left!
First of all... let me say that I woke up at 8 AM this morning because my back hurt and it woke me up. And I was honestly too nervous about telling the owner that I hadn't ordered enough inventory this week to go back to bed. I half anticipated getting fired today... to be honest. Jim Johnson comes from the Chicago Stock Exchange... and he's running the store like he ran his firm... and there's no way he would have tolerated a mistake like the loss of inventory in an inventory-based corporation before.
Anyway... so we only got about fifteen minutes into the "meeting" when Mr. Johnson thought the best course of action would be to try to get more "mix" rather than talking about anything. So we both made some calls... what a crazy world we live in... anyway, we made some calls and Chris, the area manager, said that he'd be able to get us four cases of mix... which would be enough for us to make two pans of 8 different flavors. FANTASTIC! So I started making ice cream (Cheesecake) because we had one "bladder" left. So I'm makin' the Cheesecake... and Chris comes in, with only three cases. Three is still better than none, so I thank him BIG TIME (take that as grossly as you'd like to).
Ok... lots of sweet cream mix, and some chocolate mix... and away I go, right? Well... kind of. Cherise was the only one working... and we had a line out the door pretty much as soon as we opened. For those of you who don't know, it was almost 60 degrees and sunny in Chicago today. Yeah, you read right... Sixty degrees. What a great day for Ice Cream!!!
Anyway... so Cherise is working HARD... and then Emily came at one... and Mr. Johnson thought I should find a third person, so I called everyone. I mean EVERYONE! But, oddly enough, when you hire a bunch of people from a Bible Institute, they don't take the Sabbath very lightly. Yeah... hard to find a strict Christian on a Sunday. We Catholics don't understand... but, then again, we're all destined to Hell.
So no one could come in for the afternoon, but I did call Elizabeth >blush< and she could work at night. "Great," I thought, "that's four for tonight, but still no one for the afternoon... I guess I'll go back to my place and change." And, oddly enough, that's what I did. I got a random call from Jim while in Jim Johnson's car (he drove me back to my place to change)... Hi Jim!
I changed in like two minutes (honestly) and got back to the car so fast that Jim (Johnson not Shilander... try to keep up) said "Wow... quick change." And I said "I've been in a lot of plays." And, let's face it... anyone who can go from black sweater/black jeans to a fencing outfit in a minute and a half is a 'quick change.' Eat it, Amy Lewis! You and your "John can change his entire outfit in twenty seconds"... you make me puke! And I really really miss you.
>sniffle... wipes eyes< anyway... Jim drives me back to the store and I keep pluggin' away at the ice cream. Cherise and Emily periodically come back to the back where I'm making the ice cream and vent their frustrations... and I let them, and I try to cheer them up, make them laugh, or at least thank them for their hard work.
Time passes... the line is still out the door. No one extra is coming in... i'm messing around trying to make the ice cream as soon as I can so it can be blasted for four hours (at least)... and I DID call Dmitry and left a message asking him if he wanted to come in as soon as he could. And he showed up around 4... So NOW I've got three people working. Fantastic!
The line's still out the door. We're out of things... like brownies, spoons, waffle anythings... the ice cream isn't going to be ready in time... and we're going to run out in front. I've been stressing all day... what I needed was... ABBY! Hooray for Abby... she showed up at 5. And, at that point, I had four people working out front. That's PLENTY. Sure the line's still out the door, but for one full hour I'll have someone who can: 1) Run to the store to buy bananas; 2) make brownies; 3) check the lobby; 4) Do everything else that I can't do and the people working the stones can't do.
Wow... what a great 60 minutes that was! My sister even called me out of the blue to see if I was ok. I basically only had time to tell her that, no I wasn't, and thank her for thinking about me. She and my mom were thinking about me... wondering how I was doing. I wondered if the anurism I was having could be seen from space.
Anyway then Cherise and Emily left... but Elizabeth >blush< showed up. Ok... we're one person short... if only Jenn would actually show up (even though she gave her 'two weeks' earlier this week), things might work out. Except for the ice cream... we're running low, the stuff isn't ready. I make a decision to call Andrea and ask her what the proticall is as far as closing the store down when there's no inventory. She's not there... I leave what one might refer to as a "panicked" message. Ok... Andrea isn't going to help... the line's out the door and we're one person short (even though we don't have the ice cream to serve the customers even if we DID have all the people)... I'm all alone, trying to make decisions and figure things out. And I did something I haven't done in a long long time:
I prayed. I got on one knee and bowed my head to the three compartment sink. I said... "please... I'm not strong enough to do this... send someone to help me... I need one more person."
And what happened? Jenn called in to say that she was with her roommate who was "in the emergancy room." Ok... I'm sorry... but this was JUST her LAME ASS excuse to not come into work (or so I thought). She gave her two weeks... and now she's going to flake out and just not show up to work. I was so MAD... I... I didn't know what to do... If she hadn't have quit, I would have fired her on the spot. I don't even care that I don't have that power... I would've told Andrea the situation, and she would've agreed.
What did I do? I help Dima (Dmitry), Elizabeth >blush<, and Abby... that was the only thing I could think of. I started refilling cups, and spoons, and spades, and making sure they were ok and they didn't need a break or anything to drink or anything. I took care of the three employees who were ACTUALLY doing the work. That's all I could think of. Then Andrea called... she got my message and she was going to come in. When she got there at about seven thirty, she gave me a pat on the back (literally) and asked if I was ok... i explained the situation and she started talking to me like I was insane or suicidal... just giving me the tone of voice that's overly soothing, like I could snap and kill them all. So I told her I didn't appreciate that tone of voice, or at least I tried to... no coherant thought actually came from my lips... and I just stopped trying to say whatever it was that I was trying to say and I said "I haven't eaten all day, and I'm tired, and I'm cranky, and I'm sorry." This is when she ordered (you're damn right she ordered) me to go get some food... and I ran to Subway and saw mah-main man who owns the place.
OK... so I'm going to quickly digress... but there's a dude who owns the Subway right next to Coldstone, and he's ALWAYS there. ALWAYS. If it's open, he's working. And, since I've picked up so many hours at Coldstone, I tend to see him a lot. We have taken out the trash at the same time at least twice... I go in Subway all the time when I'm working at can't get back to my place... so we know each other... it's cool.
Anyway... i get a sub, go back, and Andrea's brother (Jeremy... one of many Johnson boys) is with her and she's got him doing dishes for me. She and he were actually hanging out when I called her (a reason for me to feel bad)... but we all talked and she and her brother finally convinced me that there was nothing more I could do. There wasn't anything I could do... and, for some reason, that made me feel better.
They left... and Abby told me that this kind of inventory thing happened in the other store she worked at all the time. During the summer, she said, it would happen once or twice a week. AND... Abby said that she was having fun. THAT made me feel better.
Jenn called again... she said she's going to pick up her stuff sometime next week... and she really doesn't plan on working. See? I set it up so that you'd think I was mad at someone when I shouldn't have been. But, in fact, I was rightfully mad at her... and am trying to think of a way to make her suffer. Heehee.... no... but what she did was unfair to the rest of the employees.
Speaking of which, after that I went and served customers while Dima and Elizabeth >blush< finally got their breaks. And, you know what? The customers didn't seem to mind all that much that we were out of stuff. There were two reactions: 1) "This is ALL the ice cream that you have? >sigh... rolls eyes< Ok... I'll take a >whatever we had left<"; 2) "Okay... well... which of these flavors is your favorite?" or "How about I try >insert their favorite creation< with the >name of different ice cream< instead?" OR "I'll try a >insert something they've never had before<". It was AMAZING! We were out of everything... and people still bought the ice cream. That's right, folks. People were ACTUALLY eating the Butter Peacan and the Yogurts and the flavors no one gets even though they're good like Banana, White Chocolate, and Cheesecake. So... even though, by the end of the night, we had run out of White Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate Yogurt, Sweet Cream, Strawberry, French Vanilla, Cake Batter, Coffee, AND Mint... no one seemed all that upset.
What did I learn? A) Mother Fucking sheep! Just keep following, you mindless shits! and B) Maybe God, or the Lord, or the Almighty, or whoever you pray to didn't send someone to help, He/She sort of did. The help came in the form of the customers' attitude, the attitudes of the employees, help from Andrea when I felt overwhelmed... So could this be the work of a divine power? Or is it simply the work of a complicated social structure wherein the best interest of the society is not to stress over luxery items like ice cream, but to (overall) treat them as such, and the best interest of the workplace is to aid other coworkers to form a cohesive and united front? You decide. goodnight...

Quick sidenote for those of you scoring at home... I FINALLY got up the courage to ask Elizabeth >blush< out. We're going to Lou Malnati's for pizza tomorrow (Monday) night. I'm excited and nervous... I'll let you know how it goes. Ken thinks I'm cute... this does not help me with the ladies, as Ken has a penis. That is true... I've heard of it's measurement... in one of the worst games of truth or dare ever played.