Your mission if you choose to accept it...

I have been in Dubai for a little over a week now, and just finished up my first week of Front of the House (FoH) training.  I had a blast, even though I am not used to putting in fifty hours a week but at the end after I started using my compression stockings again it was easy.  Even got back to the "my feet hurt so bad they stopped hurting" phase alot faster than normal.

I only hit two snags during training this week, two of which I know I will iron out with practice.  The first was expo.  I had never actually expo'd a shift for PF Chang's before but I just decided to swallow any apprehension and jump into it with two feet.  I quickly learned why my store is probably going to top out over 7 million dollars in sales at least this year, and even with a moderate night I got spanked until I got backup.  I picked myself up though, I know I can hang now... and that means I will only get better.

The other snag was with hosting.  It is a job I have little experience in and I took it easy the first day with just seating and greeting guests.  They put me into a coordinator position at the beginning of the rush but I did not do so hot.  It is totally different than what I am used to with Restaurant work.  By day two I started to get more of a handle on it, thankfully it was a slower day so I could practice my seating rotation.  Again, I learned that a day shift where they only do 7,000 dollars in US is considered slow.  With that just being the day shift, and a promising night ahead of them, they still were going to spank my formerly considered busy Red Robin on most days.

The week I started they did $160,000 dollars, and were upset because it was the first time their sales were down!

Tom Cruise is in town!  Whoopee I suppose.  He is filming MI4, and the only thing that had me wondering if he is going to BASE jump off the Khalifa.  Mike saw him at a club he took me to a couple days earlier, and I kinda kicked myself for not going out that night, but alas I am still broke and living off the good will of my co-workers until the 25th.

As for my new team.  I cannot thank them enough for treating me so well.  I may be new to the store, but everyone has been so polite, nice, welcoming and kind that I really do not feel as if I have traveled 8000 miles.  I am excited to get my own place and finally have a place I can call home.  It has been a long long time since I have lived by myself and I am kinda looking forward to it.

I am also losing weight, just like when I was here before.  It is not readily apparent in the places I want to lose weight, but you can start to see it in my face (I need the belly, not the face!), and I will have more to come. I am moderately exercising and drinking tons and tons of water.  I am going to do some more research, but I am starting to honestly think we are getting stuff put in our water in the States that makes us more fat than other parts of the world.  But I suppose that makes me a conspiracy theorist.

I have been having some pangs of loneliness, but not because of the distance that I have traveled... just the same old heartbreak.  8000 miles can't keep that away, but I am not going to let it keep me down.  While I may not have moved on as much as some people would have liked, I am in a far far better place than I have ever been.  I am only moving up now, moving forward with me.

I found out that I am being sent to Kuwait in about a month and a half to do my culinary training, and even though it is a dry country, I am oddly excited to meet new people and make new friends.

Well, I suppose I should quit my rambling for the time being until I can get more posted.

I may not be able to update this as often as I would like.  Here at Nojoum I have to pay for my internet, and I do not have 500 AED to drop for a months worth of internet.  I am not home enough anyway to use that much!

This message will probably never self destruct in 5 seconds, but you had best throw it away in a cool slow mo shot anyway!