Memorial Day weekend

Saturday I had a great day off. I thought about possibly working at the restaurant, but I'm so glad I took it off instead. I started the day off with a walk to check out a condominium complex that my parents and sis will be staying at in August. After getting back and grabbing some breakfast at Cafe Hanaelei I headed out to find this so-called secluded beach.

When I first heard about it, I was warned "Well it's a bit of a hill to get down to the beach . . ," but I had no idea that it was going to be quite such a slope. Literally I had to go down this practically vertical hill with some stairs cut out of it. I admit there were handrails, which made me feel like a wimp at some points but it was still a little dangerous (the pictures don't even give the drop justice). Once I got there, the beach was awesome. It was very small and with a few clear spots for swimming and also some great coral for snorkeling. I brought my ipod and an old USA Today, but most of the time I swam or just listened to the crashing waves. The day was perfectly clear so I got some sun and it felt great to relax.

Sunday I started my bussing job at Cafe Hanalei. The night before I told a couple of bussers at dinner that I was going to be starting the next morning and one laughed in my face and said "Oh yeah . . . you're going to do great!" Of course he wasn't quite aware of my background in restaurants but it still irked me and made me even more determined to do a good job. I was really only nervous about carrying the huge trays of dirty dishes, since I have very little upper body strength. Sunday I showed up in my lovely uniform (basically it looks like a house cleaners dress), girls in the cafe are required to wear dresses which goes along with Princeville's traditional style. Basically my shift was 8 1/2 hours of pure running around clearing tables, setting tables, carrying trays, and organizing dishes at the dishwasher station. I swear there is nothing more humbling than diggin through people's dirty dishes! We were pretty slammed and then I didn't realize until later that my section was short two bussers (since I was technically still training and not a real busser) which made my learning experience even better :) In one way it was stressful to be so busy but then in some crazy way I loved it too. I love the restaurant biz and I couldn't but somewhat enjoy the madness. Plus at the end of the shift I got a couple compliments from some of my coworkers about how well I handled being so busy. Inside I was like "HA! Don't mess with me! I do know what I'm doing" :) Plus I made some cash from tips and will be making more once I'm off of "training." I'm so glad I have my background, because again there was little training. People can keep waiting for me to fall on my face because it's not going to happen!

Monday I worked half a day with the sales department and learned about the vital relationship needed between Revenue managers and Sales managers. More fun learning tomorrow!