I’d like to speak to the manager!!!
I’d like to tell you a story.
One, that is absolutely true.
One, that changed the trajectory of mine and Adam’s life.
On Christmas Day, 2011, my friends Lisa and Michelle, along with me, sat Adam down in their living room and explained to him that we were leaving NYC and moving to Maine.
This was not easy. He’d lived there for 15 years and the thought of not being part of the city scared him.
Eventually on that day, he said yes.
We went home 48 hours later and started the process of planning our move.
We took apart our guest room so that we could move the stuff we had in storage home to be with us, in order to save money.
We began to purge. Selling things. Giving things away.
We had a plan.
We’d save money all summer, and then move the week after Labor Day.
This was locked in.
It was a go.
Fast forward to April.
We planned a trip to Maine, to visit our friends.
While we were there, I suggested that we look at a few apartments to get a feel for what housing looked like, how much would it cost, and ultimately, what could we get for our money.
I searched Craigslist.
I set up 6 appointments on March 31, 2012.
We put the directions into the GPS and went to all of the appointments.
The first apartment was in South Portland. I like it a lot. Adam thought it was dirty because you could tell little kids had lived here. We’d been told it was already rented but I asked the landlord if we could see it anyway. (Funny story, she called three weeks later, to see if we’d be interested as the tenants had not worked out).
The second was off Forest Avenue. It would have been great, if it hadn’t been 100 years old and last updated 100 years ago.
The third was on State Street. It had been updated, by chopping the historic building up into a million pieces. There were at least 5 or 6 couples looking at this one.
4, 5, and 6 were worse than the first 3.
Adam and I went home saying that if this is what we were going to have to live in in Maine, we might want to think about a different city.
We had one more appointment and it was at 9:00 the next morning, April 1, 2012.
We arrived to a construction site. The apartment was under renovation.
We walked in and fell in love.
We asked if we could come back and see the apartment with our friends at noon. We wanted to make sure it was in an okay part of town and that it was a good value.
We saw it again.
Then asked if we could come back one last time at 5:00.
That afternoon, we saw the apartment one last time. We both agreed it was amazing.
We gave the landlord a check for the security deposit and first month’s rent, with a start day of May 1.
We didn’t have the money for either check.
We borrowed the money from Adam’s dad 24 hours later.
We had an apartment in Maine.
However, we weren’t supposed to move until September.
We said fuck that and on May 27th, we loaded our stuff into a U-Haul and drove north to Maine from NYC.
Neither of us had jobs. We had no savings.
It was a true leap of faith.
I interviewed at several jobs when we got here.
One was for a management job on an island.
One was for a front of house manager job 20 minutes north of us.
I took the job 20 minutes north and reached out to the island job and said, I would not be a good fit, but that they should hire my partner as a server.
He started two weeks later.
I started my manager job.
12 weeks later, I was offered a lighting job assisting on a big Cirque type show that would be presented in China. It was perfect. What are the odds of a lighting job like that in Maine?
I quit my management job and started drafting.
4 weeks to the day, that I started working on the show, the project lost funding and everyone was let go.
It’s October 1 and I’m unemployed.
I did get 4 week’s severance, and so it appeared there was no need to rush to get a job.
October came and went.
And suddenly, it was November 1 and I needed to start looking.
I started sending out resumes but I couldn’t find a job.
I am not even getting interviews.
I am applying to management jobs. But also serving jobs.
November comes and goes. Still unemployed.
December comes and goes still unemployed.
Well, actually at the end of December, I got an interview at Panera Bread as an assistant manager. I actually had 4 interviews. The last one was a stage. (A stage, pronounces stawge, is a tryout in the restaurant. Cooks very often have a stage before they are hired).
Three interviews and a stage.
I discovered that I didn’t get the job, when I saw the ad re-posted for the position again on Craigslist.
Fun fact, this is the reason that no matter what job you are applying for, if I interview you and I’m not hiring you I at least say so with an email.
It’s January 1, still unemployed.
I finally decide maybe it’s my resume.
I re-work it thinking that part of the problem might be my lighting work and MA and MFA, both in theater.
I drop all of my theater work from my resume.
I drop my M.A. and M.F.A from my resume.
I fudge the dates on my employment. I didn’t lie about my jobs, just when I worked there to fill in the gaps when I was in graduate school.
I start sending out my new resume.
At this time, Adam says to me, enough, I don’t care where you work you have to get a job.
This might have been because we were now two months behind on rent. Our landlord was understanding, but it was only a matter of time until he wasn’t.
I apply to everything.
I apply and get interviewed as a manager at Target.
I didn’t get hired.
I apply at Sam’s Club, and get an interview.
I go into my interview and speak with a manager.
He looks at my resume, speaks to me for about 12 minutes and says to wait here.
Five minutes later another manager walks through the door. He speaks to me for five minutes and says wait here.
And another manager.
And finally, the GM of the store walks in and hires me. All in 90 minutes.
I’ll be an assistant manager in membership sales.
I hated every minute of the experience.
I hated peeing in a cup.
I hated having a background check.
I hated when Kathy called to tell me that I’d passed everything and to return her call to set up a date to start.
Meanwhile, while I was waiting on the pee results and background check, I kept sending out resumes.
On February 21, 2013 at 3:45 I arrived at Margarita’s on St. John Street, to drop off my resume for a serving position.
They didn’t open until 4:00, so I was sitting in my car, looking at my phone, when it rings.
There is a man on the other end who says that he got my resume, thought it looked good and wanted to know if I’d like to come in on Monday to chat about a dining room management position.
I explain that the next day, I’m flying to Iowa, and won’t be back for 2 weeks.
He asks if I’m available now.
I say yes, but that I’m not dressed for an interview.
He says not to worry about it.
10 minutes later, I walk into a restaurant, in Monument Square to interview for a management position. The job, would require me to wait tables, while also, managing the floor.
I’m led to his office downstairs and we begin to talk. It’s a little after 4:00.
Three hours later, at 7:00, I walk back to my car.
I don’t remember a lot about the interview. Just that we clicked. That I thought it went well. And that he told me he’d reach out in the next few days.
24 hours later, I flew to Iowa. I designed my last show in Iowa, and my next to last show ever.
7 days into the trip, I received a call.
He told me that he didn’t think I was a good fit for dining room manager.
He went on, saying, he felt like I would make a better GM.
I held my breath. Did I hear him correctly?
He asked me if I was there.
He followed that question with, did I think I could do the job.
I assured him that I could.
We spoke briefly about salary. At the time, a million more dollars than I thought I’d ever make.
He told me to reach out when I arrived back in Maine.
And we hung up.
I called my boyfriend, who might have thought I was lying, because the whole idea of going form a supervisor at the Hard Rock Café in Times Square NYC, to the GM of a restaurant was so outlandish, so crazy.
I finally convinced him it was not a trick.
A week later, I reach out, and am told I have to interview with the person who runs the company that he is partnering with.
On the day of the interview, I put on a suit, and head to her office.
I was so fucking nervous. I’d been told I had the job, but what if she hated me.
Ultimately, she did not.
I was hired. I had a job.
After 6 very long months, I am employed.
I start three weeks later.
And every day at 9:00 I’d get to work and say just before I went in, FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT.
I’d go in and make decisions. And put together checklists. And make lists. And send emails. And I pretend I knew exactly what I was doing.
On April 15th, the rest of the management team started.
On May 15, we had our soft opening.
On May 18, we opened to the public.
We were busy right out of the gate.
My first weekend there, everyone kept telling me I looked so calm considering how busy we were.
Months later, I told them it was because my time at the Hard Rock in NYC that sat 800 people at one time, had taught me that 250 people was not busy.
I truly, really, did go from waiting tables to the GM in 90 seconds.
In truth, I was very lucky. My boss was an amazing mentor.
And he’d hired the supporting management team, and one of those team members was Laura, who is now one of my best friends.
She and I played restaurant off and on for five years.
I still call it playing restaurant.
Where you sit down and shoot the shit, and figure out how to do what you need to do.
It was ten years ago this past Tuesday, that I walked into that interview, and a wonderfully sweet man, named David Turin, took a chance on an unemployed, man.
He saw something, that I didn’t even see in myself.
And he said, let’s do it.
And do it, we did.
10 years later, my career has progressed. I have the confidence to actually say I know what I’m doing.
I also have the knowledge to admit when I don’t know what I’m doing.
A year and a half later, the same man, told me that Adam and I needed to buy his mother’s house. I told him he was crazy. But once again, he was right.
Five months later, we moved into what has become our dream home.
He truly did change the trajectory of my life and by default Adam’s.
I will be forever grateful.
Thank you, David. We will never be able to repay you for the support you have given us.
I'd Like to Speak to the Manager!!! 